Thanks to George R for this from Charles Moore in the Spectator:
A Dickensian scene of human misery.
Single mothers who cannot scrape together the £145.50 demanded are dragged before the magistrate to pay the six figure salaries of BBC bosses and stars. A cut would be very popular. Go into the next election promising to (say) halve the licence fee. This would immediately please millions and force the BBC to curtail its operations. Once its power starts to decline, it will never recover.
This line from the article caught my eye:
“The Tories still fear that the BBC will try to trash them at the next election if they attack the licence fee”
Have I missed something this past 40 years. The BBC never misses a trick to trash the Conservatives.
Here is an excellent website that details everything you could ever wish to know about not paying a TV Licence, or as we call it, ‘The Lounge Tax’.
http://www.bbctvlicence.com/index.htm
Thanks for that Lojo,
I have received a few of those over the years myself – 10 or more years in my case, so that’s about one-and-a-half grand I’ve saved! I’ve had the one about taking me to court too but that was a few years ago and I haven’t opened any since. Rather, I write “Return to Sender” on the envelopes and put them back in the box. I haven’t got a tv, by the way, and I told them that at the very beginning when I still thought that it was reasonable of them to ask – once, maybe twice. At what point does receipt of all these unwanted letters – from an organisation deeply and sincerely concerned about Global Warming, I might add – start to constitute harassment?
Best wishes,
Richard.
No fan of payday loan companies, but the BBC recently ran a series of programmes on them ‘and the misery they cause’.
I did wonder why, when the Beeb aggressively interviewed the boss of Wonga, he didn’t fire back with; ‘Shall we talk about the misery the BBC causes? 12% of all court cases for licence fee ‘crime’. At least Wonga don’t get people sent to jail… unlike the BBC’.
No one is foolish enough to do that. Because the BBC would go on a personal vendetta against smearing the transgressor.
However I’m surprised that during a tough interview no one has said “Why don’t you talk about Jimmy Savile”.
James: True, or when in a corner say ‘The BBC is one of the most secretive unaccountable organisations in the country – and it spends millions of public money on lawyers to keep it so. think Balen, Savile, 28-gate. What right does anyone in the BBC have to demand answers from anyone!”.
The BBC has precious little moral authority in so many areas. A few interviewees standing up to them could wreck what fragile credibility they have left.
Look what happens if you cross the BBC. The Conservatives freeze the TV Licence. How do the BBC retaliate by falsely accusing a high ranking Tory of being a nonce. And they don,t care because all subsequent payouts were funded by the mug licence fee payers.
“But while TV licence prosecutions might account for over a tenth (one in eight really) of magistrates’ court cases, that doesn’t mean magistrates are spending a tenth of their time dealing with this type of offence. TV Licensing, which collects the licence fee, told the Daily Telegraph:
“TV Licence evasion cases take up a small proportion of court time as they are dealt with in bulk in dedicated sessions and very few people attend court.”
It might even be possible to argue that it’s easy money for the courts system – it’s the court that collects and “disposes of” the fine, not the BBC or TV Licensing. ”
http://fullfact.org/factchecks/tv_licence_cases_magistrates_courts-29166
Alba: Yup, the BBC has the whole process of punishing some of the weakest in society perfected. Its a well oiled machine. Highly efficient. They stand in line outside the court, facing the inevitable, called in one-by-one, perhaps holding a loved one for support, or a crying baby. They know what awaits.
“it’s the court that collects.. the fine, not the BBC or TV Licensing. ”
============
Oh and Alba, I’m sure you know, BBC and TV Licensing are one and the same. The Beeb tries to pretend they’re separate, but they’re not.
http://www.bbctvlicence.com/TVL-BBC%20hiding%20of%20identities.htm
Well that`s me satisfied Albumen!
Back to your lives citizens!
Wolfie has spoken.
God knows what you`d actually say if the BBC PAID you…not simply stuff your brains with this Kindertransport pish of yours.
Give us that Balen Report then, seeing as the BBC simply can`t do anything wrong…or set up your own site(Suckin` Up to Savile.com).
But stop being an empty gadfly or devils advocate-the BBC employs loads of them and you`re a non-unioned, zero-hours intern by comparison.
Blackleg toady!…boo, hiss, drop of psychic concrete man!
“Fullfacts” eh, Alba?
Seems there’s a lot of facts missing from your quoted article.
“What we don’t know is how many people who don’t pay for their licence manage to avoid prosecution.”
Me for one. I don’t pay for a licence AND avoid prosecution. Care to tell me how?
I am surprised you bother to defend the tax. There is no defence that makes logical sense in the digital age. It is regressive bearing hardest on the poor. It could be replaced by subscription very simply. If put to the electorate that the tax be abolished and the money remain with the citizen I will lay way odds on it would be voted in. A little mini referendum at election time should tell us who is right. The BBC apologists or me.
“Single mothers who cannot scrape together the £145.50 demanded are dragged before the magistrate to pay the six figure salaries of BBC bosses and stars.”
It is the court that collects and “disposes of” the fine, not the BBC or TV Licensing.
http://fullfact.org/factchecks/tv_licence_cases_magistrates_courts-29166
And how do they ‘dispose’ of that money do you know?
It gets paid to the Government.
You can even do it online these days:
https://www.gov.uk/pay-court-fine-online
That still hasn’t told me whether any of that money ends up at the BBC
‘That still hasn’t told me whether any of that money ends up at the BBC’
Popcorn at the ready for the latest weasel from the evening shift at ‘Semantics ‘R Us’.
Unless certain ‘exemptions’ intrude.
Can happen.
‘The fine’…but not the TV licence payment.
And I’m sure that’s a weight off that ‘single mother’s’ mind as she struggles to pay for food that her fine doesn’t go to the BBC.
“It is the court that collects and “disposes of” the fine, not the BBC or TV Licensing.”
Oh ffs. They are doing it at the behest of the BBC! The BBC is the prosecuting authority, they TELL the courts what to do. Don’t then try blaming the courts for simply doing what the BBC tells them.
Some tweets sum it up well.
=========================
End £145 BBC PollTax @BBC_tvTAXonPoor 3m
—————————————————-
To REALLY help #CHILDRENinNEED the #BBC needs to STOP JAILING MOTHERS whose only crime is to be too poor to pay to £3.7bn #BBCtax #moralmaze
The fines also attract a “Victim surcharge”
Care to tell me who the victim is in these cases?
That was for Alba, natch.
“Care to tell me who the victim is”
I can only assume it’s the BBC fat-cats with their mega-salaries and pay-offs and pensions and expense accounts and limos and….
The poor dears. So victimised.
“The Tories still fear that the BBC will try to trash them at the next election if they attack the licence fee”
This about sums-up Cameron’s brand of Toryless Toryism. Dying to do something to bring down an old foe, but hasn’t quite got the balls to actually DO anything about it, in case it pisses someone off or somebody might get cwoss with him, even though they are not going to be his chums, no matter how hard he grovels or appeases them.
In fact, that will probably be the epitaph of his premiership.
Like seriously curtailing immigration, like calling an EU referendum, like stopping the expected torrent of Romanian/Bulgarian “migrants” in January, taking a knife to Al Beeb’s annual golden harvest would gain him massive Brownie points with the vast majority of the population and might even secure an electoral bonus, come the election. It might be the saving of him, if only………..
But, as ever, he and his closest “advisors” just can’t bring themselves to front up the Twittertwats and Guardianistas, despite the fact that like most Lefties and bullies (same thing, really), they would wither and shrivel up if given the only suitable reply to such people “So what? Bring it on……….”
Oh Margaret………….we miss you.
Too true. I cannot imagine Churchill cowering in fear over an organisation that’s destroying our country.
Amen to that DavidA
i wonder how many people have had to get payday loans to stop the BBC from prosecuting them
I’ve been told that it’s possible to sue Al Beeb in Scotland for ignoring the terms and conditions their charter and therefore extorting money under false pretences.
good luck to them
The only redeeming feature of the ludicrous criminal law enforcement of the TV licence is that it is so easy to evade conviction.
Thank goodness not all laws are enforced by the BBC’s hired low wage Capita staff. There’d be anarchy.
Me and a few other passionately concerned citizens are planning to raise enough money to pay for the TV Licences required for the family of Abu Hamza…seems a fair few of the buggers, and they`re not ALWAYS on AlJazeera surely.
Not when the BBC are much more slipper sniffers, magic carpet crawlers.
Stuff Red Nose..Brown Nose is the future.
Children in Need?….well a trawl of Fridays madrassas will raise up quite a few.
Until then though-let`s all raise some TV Licence compliance and awareness for those as yet unaware that a License needs to be obtained…and the hadiths are quite clear on this point.
Sharia Blair says so too!
“We know where you live” in Arabic anybody?
“But we`ll let you slip us in your wifes burqa”…