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sergeprammstein -> RE: TV licensing - "its all in the data base" (5/29/2008 2:10:50 PM)
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Have read some information on the net about the state of things with the tv licensing system in Britain.
Rumour has it that TV licenses are going to be abolished at some point in the next decade.
At the moment we have a lot of channels available, and you are expected to hand over money to the government even if you never watch the B.B.C. channels, despite the support of the B.B.C. being the reason for the license. Also, in the days of far cheaper TV licenses, the B.B.C. used to have an ethos that drove good quality TV that educated and entertained, which is now blending away as the B.B.C. vie to be just as crass, or sometimes worse, than their competitors.
Any other Brits noticed that what used to be The Radio Times is now a Doctor Who promotional pamphlet with television listings attached?
Any other Brits noticed how much the North Western regional news provides adverts for the undoubted magnificence of Nu Regen Liverpool Inc?
Any other Brits noticed that it is now Channel 4 that puts on politically controversial material?
Any other Brits noticed that whilst the B.B.C. is not supposed to have adverts, it spends a fortune constantly advertising itself and preferred political mentalities?
I believe that the B.B.C. runs a channel in America that takes money for running adverts - far from the idea behind the organisation when the license scheme came into being.
Herumph. There is a clause in the European Human Rights thingy that says that no one should stand in the way of the transference of information - which to my mind means precisely that if Sky News (which is better than the B.B.C.' s efforts) want to tell me things, then it is not the government's place to charge me for it. Evidently it is still legal though for individual states to impose licenses for TV.
What this means is a system whereby the licensing authority assumes that every address in the country that doesn't have a license must have a TV, and if you, for instance, live with your curtains closed, choose not to bother taking an old television aerial off your roof and choose not to answer the door to strangers (as is your right), you may find that the latest breed of TV license inspector is an extremely insistent revenue collector who can carry the thuggish atmosphere of someone not good enough at his craft to get a job as a bailiff.
They go for the poor, the mad, very often for women, and their ideal hunting grounds are sink estates where you find single parents living in poverty and under mental strain.
The law does not require you to answer the door to them, answer their endless letters or talk to them. I believe that if they turn up with a cop it is a good idea to let them in, but you are not actually legally required to let them in without a search warrant.
Magistrates in some areas of the country issue search warrants for suspected TV license evasion like confetti, and other magistrates are sane.
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