CONGRATULATIONS to the BBC for getting back on track after a tricky couple of years.

To spark Establishment outrage for broadcasting brave programmes, and to stick by your guns, is why I pay my licence fee.

I’m not just talking about ­Panorama’s Fifa expose but Jimmy McGovern’s drama The Accused, which enraged retired generals, MPs and the Daily Mail for daring to deal with army bullying.

It’s funny how you can write a thousand dramas about doctors and policemen that imply many of them are less than perfect, and nobody utters a sound.

Do it about a soldier (who a quick perusal of court records will show have more personal issues than most public servants) and it’s tantamount to treason.

MP Bob Russell even tabled a Commons motion accusing the BBC of a “denigration of the bravery and professionalism of members of HM armed forces”.

And all because a dramatist addressed an issue which families claim killed four of their sons at Deepcut barracks.

But who can blame a politician who represents a garrison town like Colchester for attempting to curry favour with voters, especially when he stood as a Lib-Dem but is now effectively a Tory?

Who can blame him for feeling so guilty about soldiers’ deaths, after voting in September against withdrawing troops from Afghanistan?

McGovern has not merely produced another brilliant drama he has hit a nerve.

Who was it sent these young men to die in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan if not MPs, generals and the right-wing media?

If anyone stands Accused it’s them, not the BBC.

Stand firm men. Stand firm.