The Political Thread

[Grugz]

just get I-player on your laptop or phone sharky the buggers cant get you then

  it does make me wonder why we have to pay a licence. I rarely watch the beeb save for dr who top gear and more recently the musketeers but asides the odd documentary I don't , we tend to watch stuff on sky which we choose to pay for and itv is funded by ads surely?
  we should do one of those online petitions to question the tv licence!

[Jim_Campbell]

it does make me wonder why we have to pay a licence. I rarely watch the beeb save for dr who top gear and more recently the musketeers but asides the odd documentary I don't , we tend to watch stuff on sky which we choose to pay for and itv is funded by ads surely?

Why should I pay for the NHS when I'm almost never ill? Why should my taxes pay for schools when I don't have kids? It's a piece of social infrastructure paid for by taxation, but peculiarly broken out from general taxation so you get to see yourself paying for it.

You get access to the broadcaster against which all other broadcasters around the world are compared to and found wanting: four TV channels plus a couple of kids' channels; a dozen radio stations; the only network of local news organisations worth a damn and a massive online resource... for roughly the price of one pint of beer per week, per household. You think even your limited viewing isn't worth that?

Ask ex-pat Americans living here what things they find remarkable about the UK, answer No1 is usually the NHS and No2 is usually the BBC.

Jim

[Theblazeuk]

The TV license funds a lot of infrastructure and development as well as the BBC itself. From digital radio bandwiths to on-demand services and more. Needless to say, commercial companies are not exactly keen on investing in things like say, Freeview's digital platforms, iPlayer technology, subtitling for hard of hearing, etc....

Also as Jim says I have never met a foreigner who wasn't impressed by the two public services the general public resents or takes for granted. Well, except the French ones.

[The Legendary Shark]

For the umpteenth time: Your taxes are used for only two things; to pay government debt and as surety for future borrowing.
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"Everything must be paid for!" you might cry, and I agree - but while we are using privately created money, and paying interest for the privilege, we're paying way, way too much for everything and gradually losing what we've got - including freedom.
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It's not about avoiding paying, it's about what we're paying with. In essence, if you use privately created money you have to pay 'rent' on it but publically created money is virtually rent free.
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[Frank]

What event and what group of people actually ended the First World War? The answers to those questions aren't any of the ones which just popped into your head:

http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/world-war/1240

[The Legendary Shark]

Interesting. I did not know that. Thanks, Sauchie.

[Professor Bear]

Similarly, your option if you don't want to pay the TV license is to not own a TV

No, you can - for now - own a tv in your home without paying a licence, you simply have to remove your external antennae, or at the very least any means of connecting your tv to an external antennae.  You can have a console that receives streaming services like iPlayer connected to your tv without having to pay the licence, so if you can wait an hour you don't even have to miss Dr Who.

[Dog Deever]

When my arm got bust outside a local Aberdonian tavern last year, the surgeons, orderlies and nurses were all pushing hard to get me to report the assault- mainly because of the severity of the injury and the relatively high chance that I will be left physically impaired by it. They couldn't understand why I was adamant that there was no way I was reporting it, I tried to explain that it was because I did not believe the Filth would treat me fairly, if they even bothered to do anything at all- "I dinna trust them, they're scum" pretty much summed it up.
My expectation was that they would simply charge both of us under public order, despite the fact the attack was unprovoked, and any violence on my part was in self-defence in an attempt to get away from the guy. I still believe I made the right decision- having worked in a prison and known a lot of 'criminals', and I've been on the receiving end of police shite enough over the years to second guess how they'd view it.

[Spikes]

What event and what group of people actually ended the First World War? The answers to those questions aren't any of the ones which just popped into your head:

http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/world-war/1240

Very interesting read that, Sauchie. Must investigate further..

[Jim_Campbell]

Dog: You're probably wise. This is a symptom of the whole target-driven, performance-related pay culture that dominates our so-called public services these days. Put simply, if a copper is called to an altercation, even if it's a scumbag who's been prevented from mugging an old lady by an upstanding citizen, nicking BOTH parties for affray, assault or other disorderly behaviour looks far better for his/her arrest rate at the next performance review than applying any sense of common decency or, y'know, justice. It also takes less time than working out who did what to whom and why.

A sad state of affairs, but that's what you get when you reduce complex public service roles to a series of performance checklists.

Cheers

Jim

[Richmond Clements]

Similarly, your option if you don't want to pay the TV license is to not own a TV

No, you can - for now - own a tv in your home without paying a licence, you simply have to remove your external antennae, or at the very least any means of connecting your tv to an external antennae.  You can have a console that receives streaming services like iPlayer connected to your tv without having to pay the licence, so if you can wait an hour you don't even have to miss Dr Who.

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/tvlicence

[Dog Deever]

Yeah Jim, plus 'self-defence' is an easy claim to make, if you know the law well enough, and I learned it as part of my self-defence training (which, clearly, didn't work!) in prison (employment).
One does not have to be physically assaulted to strike out, only 'feel threatened' by an individual (in Scotland, anyway). Strong words and or/ close proximity are enough to warrant 'threat'. Also, your response can be anything from hollering a warning to smashing a cheek with a legally sanctioned palm strike- so long as you strike once and then remove yourself (which is what I did, though after I was initially assaulted).
Try proving you weren't 'causing someone to feel threatened', when the only witnesses are a bunch of drunken punters at closing time. In most cases it would come down to one word against another, which would lead to the PF dropping the charges on insufficient evidence, or charging both for public affray or whatever- especially when both parties would be classed as 'undesirables'. A huge fine or community service on top of a smashed humerus might have been a little too much grief to bear. If I required justice, I'd have to get it myself because I seriously doubt the state would give me it- the law is an ass, and its enforcers are arseholes.

[Professor Bear]

Similarly, your option if you don't want to pay the TV license is to not own a TV

No, you can - for now - own a tv in your home without paying a licence, you simply have to remove your external antennae, or at the very least any means of connecting your tv to an external antennae.  You can have a console that receives streaming services like iPlayer connected to your tv without having to pay the licence, so if you can wait an hour you don't even have to miss Dr Who.

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/tvlicence

The super-short version is: you only need a licence if you watch BBC programming as it's being broadcast.  If not, you don't need a licence.

Also, a good rule of thumb is to never trust what the BBC have to say about who needs to give them money.  Their advice seems to skew in a certain direction that may not always be factually accurate.

[ZenArcade]

Christ, this thread is top gun (no pun) at the moment. I've crop Internet at the moment so can't stick my beak in.......gurrrrr. Z

[The Legendary Shark]

I find attitudes to the t.v. license interesting. The consensus seems to be either pay up or throw away your television (and, presumably, your radio as well).
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This seems to me to be indicative of prevailing views on society, views I am increasingly finding myself at odds with. If you don't pay for a t.v. license then you don't deserve a telly. And it's not just that; if you don't pay for a driving license you don't deserve to drive, if you don't pay for a fishing license you don't deserve to fish, if you don't pay for a passport you don't deserve to travel. Furthermore, there seems to be no difference between failure or refusal to pay and inability to pay.
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This attitude goes a lot further, of course. No payment, no public transport, no housing, no water, no food, no clothing, no entertainment, no access to justice, etc., etc., etc.
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In short, if you don't want to pay or can't pay then you don't deserve to be included in society. It's almost as if people believe that our society is a working persons' club owned and run by the 'authorities' and that it has the final say on who can participate and who cannot.
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In the words of the late, great Bill Hicks, "you think you're free? Try going anywhere without money and see how f***ing free you are."
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