Comments on: Death, taxes and television

By: mdz

mdz — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:43:13 +0000

Thanks for the link to the consultation. I’ve filled it out. It’s good to know that this is being monitored, as it seems slightly out of control.

By: yungchin

yungchin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:56:54 +0000

This is indeed one of the weirdest things – perhaps the weirdest – I’ve experienced since coming to the UK. The TV-Licensing letters would probably be considered so intimidating as to be unlawful where I’m from.

In light of the TV-Licensing madness, I really wonder what the British implementation of the proposed “download tax” might end up like – would they come and search your PC for files every year, just to decide if you have to pay the fees?

By: Steve George

Steve George — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:20:51 +0000

@John – just want to point out that the _reason_ it exists is that it’s how the BBC gets paid. Every TV can receive the BBC, so their budget is collected by having a n annual license fee.

@Anmar – unfortunately, your average British person thinks that surveillance is good because it protects them from terrorists||paedophiles||. They don’t like speed cameras though, because those laws should _obviously_ be ignored!

By: jonathancarter

jonathancarter — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:35:14 +0000

But how does London work? I looked at that picture and none of the sockets have CPU’s or RAM in them! So much for their database :)

By: Alastair Scott

Alastair Scott — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:10:53 +0000

Found it – there is an ongoing consultation on, among other things, “What’s your view on the tone of the marketing and advertising about the need to pay a TV licence? Do you think the methods of enforcement, including letters, visits and detection, are reasonable and appropriate?”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/open_consultations/tv_licence.html

Although the BBC Trust is hardly independent (it is part of the BBC …) these are surprisingly specific questions (“consultations” are usually generalised and anodyne in the extreme), and suggest that complaints have hit home.

By: Anmar Oueja

Anmar Oueja — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:58:03 +0000

Wow… this is insane. I live in Canada and if Rogers or Bell did that, they would see such a massive comparison against them they wouldn’t last a week.

The advertisement is another story altogether. Don’t the Brits consider it negative or just plain extreme. Have they been desensitized by all that surveillance. It is too 1984 and that is pretty creepy.

All I can say is “move to Canada” :).

By: Alastair Scott

Alastair Scott — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Get in touch with your Member of Parliament. I did so about six years ago; I do not know exactly what he did, but it was effective – not one “threatening” letter since! It took seven years for the authorities to find out that I had no television, but the bombardment of mendacious letters over the next 18 months or so made up for lost time …

On the last, it is only a very small part of English law; there are about half-a-dozen “strict liability” offences (where the burden of proof is reversed) and, bizarrely, one of those is (not) having a TV licence.

By: Colin Ian King

Colin Ian King — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:28:34 +0000

Matt, I am in the same boat. I do not have a TV and I get this kind of TV licensing abuse regularly. I have emailed http://www.whitedot.org in the past and they give some helpful advice on what to do when being hassled by the TV licensing.

I am particularly enraged by the fact that British Law is meant to presume one is innocent until proven guilty but when it comes to not owning a TV, the Law is the other way around and one is treated as a criminal until one can prove that one is innocent.

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:11:22 +0000

I strongly advise you to turn them away if they do not have a warrant.

Years ago while living in shared accommodation I let a TV licence person in knowing the house had a TV licence (but I did not know where it was). I was rewarded by being served a fine letter which indicated I would be liable (despite the fact I was not the landlord who also lived in the house). I only escaped because I noticed the address on the fine letter was for another house on a similarly named street and the fine letter was torn up on the spot.

Simply turn them away if they turn up to have a look around – it’s safer.

By: John

John — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:29:14 +0000

I can’t believe that any country still charges a fee for viewing a TV; I could understand it if you were broadcasting, but for viewing ??

If your TV programs are anything like the crap we’re fed in Australia, they should be paying you.