Tuesday 13 March 2012

License To Be Free

For quite a while now I've not wanted to pay the BBC license fee. For reasons that are undoubtedly obvious to my readers, it's biased, unaccountable, and hits the poorest the most:
Yesterday in Hastings, a young single mother was tried for the same offence as mine. She had a baby in a pushchair, and I agreed with the clerk to let her case go first, so that she could get out in time to fetch her other children out of school. I can see no justice and no humour in a situation where people like her are punished, so that people like Ross can get his £6 million. 
I've long not wanted to pay it, I hardly watch much TV anyway, and as Witterings from Witney illustrates the BBC is no different to the rest of the MSM who can't get enough of constant daily nanny-style 'watch what you eat bollocks:
A diet high in red meat can shorten life expectancy, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School.
Despite the contradictions in an earlier article:
Iron is essential for our bodies to function properly, so it's vital to ensure you have an adequate intake from your diet.

The most concentrated dietary sources of iron are red meat and offal such as liver. Smaller amounts of iron are also present in chicken and fish. 
It often amuses me that the defence of the license fee is that it enables the BBC to produce quality programmes that would not otherwise be made. While the point about quality is debatable, it goes without saying that good television will always attract subscribers, if the quality is so good then why does it need the law to force people to pay for it?

Anyway the deterrent for me has never been the law nor the intimidation but Mrs TBF who, understandably, was reluctant to start an avoidable fight with authority.

But due to the purchase of a new Idiot's Lantern, and the imminent move to a new property that legal obstacle no longer exists - to Mrs TBF's satisfaction. I have now become a non BBC license payer.

Good riddance.

7 comments:

  1. TBF: Not paid for years now. Like you I watch bugger all and if I do invariably on my laptop. Been all through the threatening letters bit etc and been two years now since they last wrote.

    Did you know that if unplugged and aerial disconnected TV Gestapo satisfied it is not watched or in a condition to be watched?

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  2. WFW - What satisfies the TV Gestapo matters not a jot. Aerials and power plugs don't even come into it.

    From the TVLA's own website:
    "You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast"

    Note the words 'as it's being broadcast'. How are they to PROVE that you're doing this? The 'enforcer' needs to get a warrant before he can enter your premises, and to do that he has to have concrete PROOF that an 'offence' is being committed. That means he would have to be standing there filming you watching TV. A fully tuned TV set hooked up to an aerial is NO proof.

    Over 30 years in hobbyist electronics has also taught me that even if they had detection equipment, which they don't - a trace from a computer monitor is indistinguishable from that of a TV set, especially since the arrival of LCD/LED TV's. There is also no way of knowing what is being displayed, whether its a TV program or DVD.

    The key thing is not to communicate with them in any way because they will use anything you say in a statement against you. The only way they can prosecute anyone is by their own admission so do NOT speak to their 'enforcers' except to tell them to sod off.

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  3. @WfW Yep I knew but Mrs TBF was unhappy with said situation you mention - at least now she's happy, that's all that counts...

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  4. For quite a while now I've not wanted to pay the BBC license fee.

    I don't. No TV.

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  5. I've never had a TV license and I never answer my door unless I'm expecting a friend. Venetian blinds or a spy hole are great at avoiding riff raff, AKA the enforcers.

    David

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  6. I'm with you WfW, ain't paid mine for 3 years.

    I refuse to give the B-BBC anymore money.

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  7. @James Higham, Anon, Anon - I'm printing off your comments to help further reassure Mrs TBF

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