I AM very concerned and outraged at the reaction by the BBC management to the private conversation held by the BBC presenter Sam Mason to Streamline Black and White taxi firm of Bristol ("Is she a racist?", Post, November 12).

A request for preference for an English taxi driver to drive her 14- year-old daughter is not racist, if she believes the service she is requesting would make a daughter feel safer.

If Miss Mason only requested a female taxi driver, would she be dismissed as being sexist? This is a private request, and a choice for her, to obtain a service she desires.

The misnomer that an Asian taxi driver may not be as safe as a white British, Black or Eastern European driver to be hired to transport her 14-year-old daughter, is clearly nonsense. But Miss Mason has the right for a personal choice in how and with whom her 14-year-old daughter is ferried by taxi, especially if she has a concern over language difficulties or even eligibility of work within the UK.

The BBC charter to promote citizenship is paramount in its destiny. This is about a choice, a freedom of choice for a private requisition.

If Miss Mason wanted a private male escort, would the BBC dismiss her if her choice was white or black? As a mother, she can have that choice for her daughters' travel arrangement.

In our free country, a privately solicited service is, through the public opinion and law, allowed. The BBC management has totally overstepped their remit in denying choice and, if analysed, could been viewed as being racist.

If a female Asian Muslim radio presenter wanted to be taken home by an Asian Muslim taxi driver, would she be dismissed by a similar request? Black/white, it doesn't matter – this is about a personal preference. The BBC cannot dictate and deny a private, personal choice.

If Miss Mason wished to have IVF treatment and chooses a white sperm donor, would the BBC sack her for being racist? As a concerned licence fee payer, I demand the BBC looks closely at its obligation to transmit and to perform in conduct responsible to its charter, instead of sacking staff as they did not conform to the intolerant political correctness the BBC insists on.

The BBC is not there to dictate, it is there to broadcast and to provide entertainment. I have a choice to tune into BBC Radio Bristol, or to tune to a competitor. I will not now listen to BBC Radio Bristol broadcasts as I believe its management denies freedom of choice and appears dictatorial. I would tune in if a full apology and immediate reinstatement for Miss Mason was broadcast and an inquiry into this appalling management practice occurs.

Dr Peter Jones, by email.

SAM Mason should be reinstated immediately!

Here we will have a round of the usual drivel. The politically correct are always on a hair-trigger waiting for someone to use a wrong or a "forbidden" word. The BBC are always ready to show their politically correct colours – they'd sack Sam Mason, who supposedly committed this "heinous crime" off air ... but £18 million Woss and Bland are let off for actually committing a crime. Says it all really, doesn't it?

Get things in proportion and stop being so holier than thou! This pious, sanctimonious twaddle is worse than racism and does nothing for social cohesion.

Sam Mason has been sacked, rather typically by the BBC, in the headlong rush to show who can be the first to be the most PC! It's pathetic.

Les Bate, by email.

BBC Radio Bristol presenter Sam Mason should not be sacked just for asking for an English driver for her 14-year-old daughter.

Miss Mason has, over the years, had many problems and she is now just getting her life back together.

I would like to know what kind of taxi firm could do this kind of thing. Who are these people?

I am sure some of Sam's remarks were really just something which came up at a minute's notice.

JC Moore, St George, Bristol.

Editor's note: We have named the taxi firm. It's Streamline Black and White.

WHAT a disgrace that the politically correct BBC didn't sack Jonathan Ross for his vile actions and words on a radio programme, yet they have sacked Sam Mason for requesting a non-Asian taxi driver to pick up her daughter in a private call.

Where has freedom of choice gone? The Post has had letters before about foreign taxi drivers, so why shouldn't all of us have the choice to have whom we want when ordering a taxi?

Ronald Stephens, Churchill, Somerset.

IT'S unbelievable that Sam Mason lost hear job for asking for a preferably English taxi driver.

How has she lost her job for that when 18 months ago the local chief police commissioner for our area was turning down British white applicants in favour of foreign or ethnic applicants? Why then did he not lose his job on the grounds of institutional racism?

It appears to me you can only be racist when British on foreign and not vice-versa.

A Walsh, Kingswood.

I HAVE known Sam Mason most of her life and Sam has mixed and worked with both Asian and black persons; there has never been even a sniff of racism.

Sam is a very loyal and gregarious person and very friendly, certainly not a racist. She has a goddaughter who is black. BBC, give her back her job. We will miss Sam Mason.

Charles Brigden, Bristol.

YET again, we are forced to endure another case of people getting hot and bothered over nothing.

What has Sam Mason done wrong here? Absolutely nothing at all. All she wanted was a taxi for her daughter.

Is it so wrong to specify what she wants? Of course not. Would people be so up in arms if this was an Asian lady or gentleman asking for only an Asian driver? No!

So why must we have to put up with people playing the racism card just to get some sort of attention from something that doesn't even matter. I'm getting fed up with it and I'm sure a lot of other people are, too.

Phil Jefferd, by email.

PLEASE, can you tell me what Sam Mason has done which is so bad she has lost her job?

I am a taxi driver in Bristol and on many occasions I have had Asian families ask for an Asian driver. Is this racist ?

No. This is just personal choice.

For whatever reason, she was being a mum, caring for her 14-year-old child. It is political correctness gone mad.

C Irwin, by email.

FUNDAMENTALLY, Sam Mason didn't say anything racist or sexist. In fact, exactly the opposite.

What she said was her daughter felt uncomfortable being driven at night by a man who wasn't European. She put the, maybe, misplaced concerns of her daughter, before the sensitive feelings of cab drivers.

Cab drivers make sweeping judgements about potential passengers all the time, when they refuse to pick some people up. Two strangers travelling across town at night in a car have to make sweeping judgements about each other, sometimes to be safe or get paid.

It comes with the territory for cab drivers and their passengers.

My frail old mum likes Bob the taxi driver. She used him before and feels safe with him. Am I racist, ageist or sexist when I ask the cab company for Bob when booking a cab for her?

Ms Mason should sue the taxi company who, by sacking the member of staff, have admitted they were at fault and it cost her her job.

Graham Chilvers, by email.

SAM Mason is not a racist – she is a caring mother who looks to the needs of her child before anything else. In any event, why shouldn't anyone have the right to express a preference when buying a service?

For the BBC to sack her out-of-hand by means of a sneaky recording of a private telephone conversation is outrageous.

Sam has had her demons to face in the past and she overcame them with a determination that should be admired.

I sincerely hope that this setback does not destroy her confidence and that she can rise above the present furore and continue with her life in the knowledge that probably thousands of people in the Radio Bristol area support her.

Tony Probert, Locking, Weston-super-Mare.

I HAD the privilege to meet Sam in Yate, some years ago.

She is solid as a rock and one of the nicest English ladies I have met.

She did not make a racist comment, as she is not racist.

I will quote William Hague on a Breakfast with Frost programme who said: "Political correctness has taken the place of common sense". Need I say more?

Dave Skingsley, Yate.