Found via the ever-entertaining Biased BBC, a set of demented ravings from the paranoid brigade.
Jesus… I lived without a TV license for six years; this was easy, as I simply threw away all letters from the TVLA unread. No stress. How do these people cope with bills? "British Gas has sent me a threatening letter telling them I owe them £50 and that they’ll cut off my gas if I don’t pay. Their letters are actively rude, offensive and frightening."
Biased BBC’s current obsession, meanwhile, is that the BBC is creating future Islamic terrorists by daring to report that there are rumours in circulation about why the Diego Garcia US base escaped tsunami devastation.
The point that such (rather silly) rumours would not be circulating were the current US administration not a bunch of cynical liars who have been proven willing to cause the deaths of thousands for political means is, it appears, lost on the BBC’s critics.
If Biased BBC don’t receive grants from Murdoch, then they are particularly poor capitalists.
I can understand people complaining about harassment from the TV Licensing Agency (or whatever they are called), but to blame this on the BBC is pretty shortsighted. The license chasing is done by a subsidiary of Capita, who I’m sure are paid a pretty penny for their efforts. Have a go at Capita if you don’t like threatening letters, but leave the BBC alone.
Our TV licence is in my wife’s maiden name, which meant that when I bought our last two tellies, I automatically got letters from the TV licensing people wondering why I didn’t appear to own one (shops report all TV sales to them, it seems).
In both cases, I ignored the letters – and heard nothing more.
From the TV Licensing guys themselves:
"The blind concession is 50% off the full TV Licence fee, so you’ll pay £60.50 for a colour licence and £20.25 for a black and white TV Licence."
Presumably if you decide you only need black rather than the full black-and-white, you get even more of a discount.
Actually, I’m told TV Licensing can be awkward buggers if you’re blind. There’s an obligation to admit inspectors if you don’t have a licence, which is none too onerous normally but tricky if you can’t see ID; and unlike the gas and electricity people they won’t agree door passwords. (It ‘takes away the element of surprise’, apparently, which a series of letters apparently doesn’t.)
The woman who explained this to me has yet to be visited by an inspector, though, and is rather looking forward to it. She reckons the court case will be hilarious.
Why does the guy who doesn’t watch TV have a TV license? These people are true eccentrics
Aye, the pictures are better on the radio, so they say.