Why is the BBC manufacturing computers?

I pay my licence fee and I expect to get broadcast television - that is what the licence fee is for. It's a bit like going to a cafe and paying for a bacon roll & coffee and receiving exactly that.

But the BBC is not like a cafe. Ask for a breakfast and they'd likely come back with a breakfast plus a doctor to give you free nutritional advice then manufacture their own vegan sausages.

This may sound daft but that is, in essence, what the BBC does. As part of the BBC's Make It Digital initiative for all of 2015, every Year 7 schoolchild in the UK is to receive a free Micro Bit computer. That is, about one million 11- and 12-year olds will get this programmable kit (which can be connected to a PC and programmed to operate its LED lights or magnetometer, for example).

Although the BBC's aim is laudable, and they are doing it in conjunction with a large number of partners so are not bearing the full cost by themselves, I do have concerns.

I pay my taxes so that the government, whether at Westminster or Holyrood, can use the money to pay for vital public services like the NHS and education. If we need to encourage children to take up computer programming, that should be done via the respective Education Departments. That's what I pay my taxes for.

I don't expect that when I pay to receive broadcast TV that I am now also funding school education. With the recent announcement that the BBC will now fund the cost of providing over-75s with a free TV licence, the BBC is now also part of the respective Welfare Departments.

So I welcome UK Culture Secretary John Whittingdale's announcement of a 'root and branch' review of what the BBC is for.

I'm pretty clear about why I pay my TV licence and why I pay my tax. I don't pay my TV licence to top-up the welfare and education budgets. How many great programs are never going to get made because of these decisions?

And that's me only scratching the surface. Just what else is the BBC doing that has got absolutely nothing to do with satisfying the reason I pay my TV licence?