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£139.50 for the BBC

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  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote: »
    Hold on a second. You can't have it both ways. If the licence fee really is a TV 'tax' as you claim, then it should be treated like any other tax should it not?

    I can't believe you're trying to argue that The Weakest Link is more important than someone's liberty.

    You should get a job as a Republican senator with an attitude like that.

    The TV Tax is a tax, because you're not allowed to watch ITV or Sky without paying it. It shouldn't be a tax, it should be abolished, and the BBC- through Crapita- certainly shouldn't have the power to prosecute.

    The fact that the BBC is allowed to suck at the public teat when it's the most corrupt and unaccountable Quango going is nothing short of outrageous.
    Never mind about the issue that it is the British Justice system, and the judge presiding the court case, who send anyone to prison, not the BBC.

    The BBC- through Crapita- prosecute. The BBC- through Crapita- push for the maximum punishment in all cases. Remember that the BBC- through Crapita- consider it to be a "bonus scheme without any limits".

    The magistrates can use their discretion, but it's limited discretion. If the person can't pay the fine, off to prison they go.
    I'd be interested to know the figures of how many people do end up in prison, incidentally.

    So would I. Try a Freedom of Information request to the BBC. I'll expect you'll get told it's either a "commercial confidence" or a "journalistic confidence" and therefore exempt from the FOI Act.

    You might want to ask what the expenses claims for senior news journalists are for the year whilst you're at it. The current rumours are that they're in six figures each...

    Because, as we all know, the BBC think that accountability, democracy and disclosure are for other public bodies and do not apply to them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    I can't believe you're trying to argue that The Weakest Link is more important than someone's liberty.
    Is council tax more important than a person's liberty? Is the possession of class-A drugs for personal use more important? Is benefit fraud more important?

    The TV Tax is a tax, because you're not allowed to watch ITV or Sky without paying it. It shouldn't be a tax, it should be abolished, and the BBC- through Crapita- certainly shouldn't have the power to prosecute.
    Well, a lot of my taxes go to areas or organisations I have no interest at all in, but I cannot pick and choose either. Such is life.

    The BBC- through Crapita- prosecute. The BBC- through Crapita- push for the maximum punishment in all cases. Remember that the BBC- through Crapita- consider it to be a "bonus scheme without any limits".

    The magistrates can use their discretion, but it's limited discretion. If the person can't pay the fine, off to prison they go.
    I should imagine even then the judge can choose not to send them to prison, seeing as they do it constantly.

    I suspect the number of people who ever end up in prison is extremely low.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've learned two things this week though:

    1. Robert Peston is a cunt.
    2. It's a shame James Murdoch didn't batter the cunt a bit harder.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    The technology's there, it's whether the will is there. And from the BBC it's not there, because they know just how cushy they have it.

    The real issue is not whether the will is there with the BBC. Of course it isn't, they've got interests to protect, but then so does that scumbag James Murdoch. The idea of him as some crusading ambassador for freedom and democracy is laughable.

    No, the real issue is whether there is any public will for change. And I'm not sure there is. I think most people in Britain are broadly supportive of the BBC and of keeping it as it is now. Even if they do find the licence fee a bitch.

    (And it's £142.50 actually now, I paid mine last week.)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    For anyone who is really struggling to pay £12 a month, the BBC licence should be the least of their worries tbh. Indeed, they should not own a television in the first place to save electricity for as long as their situation remain as precarious.

    Expanding on the Murdoch family, as jamelia was saying above, they're cunts of the highest order. As Private Eye reports this week, for all the talks about 'monopolies' and 'unfairness', Sky Brodcasting corporation has undercut ITN as the sole provider of news content to every commercial radio station in the country. That means that the entire news output of all the commercial stations, from Classic FM to Talk Sport to anything else, are now controlled by the Dirty Digger.

    BBC monopoly? Fuck off you cunts :mad:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That's business, Sky are cheaper than ITN so get the contract. That's how it should be. ITN should adapt or die. It's a shame as ITN are a better news provider, especially on Channel Four, but Sky News are very good too.

    However NewsCorp has just posted a massive loss, as has Guardian Media Group and TrinityMirror, all because of BBC News' website being free. Great for now, I'd love to see NewsCorp go bust, but it is rather sinister in the longer term. If GMG or TrinityMirror go bust, what will replace them? Nothing. Eventually you'll end up with one news source: the BBC.

    Maybe you like that, but I prefer a bit of variety in the news market.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    That's business, Sky are cheaper than ITN so get the contract. That's how it should be. ITN should adapt or die. It's a shame as ITN are a better news provider, especially on Channel Four, but Sky News are very good too.
    No, that's not how business should be- certainly when it comes an important public service such as news broadcasting. Sky simply uses its massive financial muscle to bid everybody else out of the market. Soon every single sport will be in the hands of those cunts. And then you can complain about paying £30 a month to line the pockets of the Murdoch family, instead of £12 a month for the licence fee.

    As for the news service Sky provides, don't make laugh. The editorial line is so piss-poor and celeb and gossip orientated it beggars belief. It's nothing short of an embarrassement at times to be honest. Might as well call it The Sun TV News.
    However NewsCorp has just posted a massive loss, as has Guardian Media Group and TrinityMirror, all because of BBC News' website being free. Great for now, I'd love to see NewsCorp go bust, but it is rather sinister in the longer term. If GMG or TrinityMirror go bust, what will replace them? Nothing. Eventually you'll end up with one news source: the BBC.
    Their losses have FUCK ALL to do with the BBC news website, and you know it as well as everyone else including James Murdoch.
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