TV licence thread

[whiteowl]

1 hour ago, Longcol said:

BBC the most trusted news source.

 

https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/bbc-most-trusted-news-source-2020

 

So which source(s)  do you deem "worthy".

What I like about the BBC is that the right think it's left wing and the left think it's right wing. To me that says it's probably doing a good job of being neutral.

[Longcol]

31 minutes ago, whiteowl said:

What I like about the BBC is that the right think it's left wing and the left think it's right wing. To me that says it's probably doing a good job of being neutral.

Trouble is that these days the right denounce anything to the left of Brietbart as "extreme left".

[Car Boot]

17 hours ago, alchresearch said:

Still regurgitating that tired old stereotype?

 

1) The BBC doesn't persecute the poor.  Unless you think its OK to use things you don't have the means to pay for?  I think I'll try that trick with my road tax and car insurance.

 

2) Women aren't being targeted in any way.  They're the ones who answer the door when the inspectors come calling.

The BBC must stop pretending that unlicensed households are somehow answerable to TV Licensing (a BBC trademark) when it has long been officially and legally established that they are not.

 

BBC TV Licensing in their enforcement activities do not have any legal authority to instruct non customers to do anything, and not doing what they ask has no legitimate escalation in law - despite what their increasingly threatening and intimidating letters warn if non customers do not comply with their instructions when they demand money with menaces. 

 

The BBC is fit for the 1920s, not the 2020s. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Car Boot

[Car Boot]

11 hours ago, onewheeldave said:

http://www.moragtreanor.co.uk/?p=350

 

"

The BBC and the TV Licensing Authority recognised that there was a gender disparity in prosecutions for failing to pay the television licence. A review into this gender disparity, undertaken by the BBC itself, found that there is ‘no evidence to suggest that enforcement activity is unfairly and intentionally targeted at women’ and that ‘there is no evidence of any discriminatory enforcement practices on the part of TV licensing’.[11] One of the reasons the BBC gave for the gender disparity was that a female was more likely to ‘engage positively’ with a TV Licensing Enquiry Officer. Let’s explore this a bit further:

 

If TV Licensing Enquiry Officers target women because they are more likely to engage, often through fear of prosecution and fear that such prosecution might result in losing their children, then this is It is a clear source of bias and discrimination and the intention is irrelevant. It suggests that TV Licensing Enquiry Officers (perhaps unintentionally) pursue female-headed households as they are a soft target for television licence enforcement. Unintended bias is still bias.
 

Women are at greater risk of non-payment because they are more likely to be on low incomes, whether in or out of work. This interaction with poverty compounds their likelihood of being targeted by TV Licensing Enquiry Officers.
 

Given that TV Licensing Enquiry Officers are incentivised then there is the potential for unconscious bias in their desire to achieve their targets and receive a bonus.
This is not acceptable. The current model of funding our public sector broadcasting, which results in so many prosecutions of the poor, and of women in particular, is no longer fit for purpose and needs to change. And never has the time been so right for change."

 

------------------------------

 

"The television licence is a particular problem as you can be prosecuted, fined and even go to prison for non-payment. In England and Wales, prosecutions for non-payment of the TV licence currently account for around one in 10 of all criminal cases in the magistrates’ courts."

 

"It is also a highly gendered debt with women being particularly disadvantaged. Females accounted for 72% of all prosecutions for television licence evasion in England and Wales in 2017.[2] Furthermore, and even more worryingly, television licence evasion remains the most common offence for which females are prosecuted, at 30% of all prosecutions for women in 2017 in England and Wales.[3] The fact that almost a third of all female prosecutions are for non-payment of the television licence is criminalising poverty and women in poverty in particular. "

Excellent post.

 

Have you noticed that it has been conveniently ignored by those who support the BBC TV Licence fee?

[zach]

It should be quite a simple yes or no, the same as it is when buying any product.

 

If you want to watch the BBC and/or use it's online features - you pay.

 

If you don't want to use the BBC and/or it's online features - you don't pay. 

 

I use it a bit, so I pay. For those that don't want to watch the BBC/iPlayer but are forced to pay, that really needs looking at IMO. I know the supporters of the BBC won't like it but should people have to pay for a business they don't use? It's not a tax as it stands today, so comparing it to tax is a non-argument. If the Gov change it to a TV Tax, the discussion becomes very different.

 

I think it would be a loss if the BBC was gone, I also think it should be funded in other ways, more in line with other companies if it's type.

 

If you wish to sign a petition against the TV licence, there's one HERE  I don't know how these petitions work, it is on the gov website and says it needs 100k signatures to be considered.

 

If you think the BBC is value for money, keep paying the fee. Or should I say, if you watch any live TV...keep paying the fee until the very unfair law changes. If you only use Amazon or Netflix etc and don't watch live TV, pay them nothing. It's worth a mention that if you're like me and watch things like live tennis on Amazon, you need to pay the BBC!

 

One thing is very clear, we will never agree on this subject but I think it's good to see opinions on both sides if the topic.

[Car Boot]

The BBC, under its trademark, drags hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in society to court every single year. Fining them. Giving them a criminal conviction. Sometimes jailing them.

 

All for the non payment of a BBC TV licence fee to watch tv. The under 30s, who tend not to watch any BBC content, are well aware that this funding model is outdated, cruel and morally wrong.

 

The only people who really defend the BBC TV Licence fee are those who tend to be middle aged, middle class, wealthy and very, very out of touch with the 21st Century.

[ECCOnoob]

4 hours ago, Car Boot said:

The BBC, under its trademark, drags hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in society to court every single year. Fining them. Giving them a criminal conviction. Sometimes jailing them.

 

 

Of course they are.

 

They are breaking the law. When people break the law they get punished.

 

This is not a difficult concept.  Want to use the service of live broadcast television on any broadcaster on any platform?   Then you need to pay for a licence as mandated by the law.   If you don't want or can't afford then you don't have.

 

What exactly is the problem? 

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by ECCOnoob

[Longcol]

3 hours ago, Car Boot said:

The BBC, under its trademark, drags hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in society to court every single year. Fining them. Giving them a criminal conviction. Sometimes jailing them.

 

All for the non payment of a BBC TV licence fee to watch tv. The under 30s, who tend not to watch any BBC content, are well aware that this funding model is outdated, cruel and morally wrong.

 

The only people who really defend the BBC TV Licence fee are those who tend to be middle aged, middle class, wealthy and very, very out of touch with the 21st Century.

Says our spokesperson for 19th century Marxist / Leninism with a dash of Rees-Moggism thrown in for good measure.

 

And links to back up your assertions in the first two paragraphs would be helpful.

 

 

[Pettytom]

5 minutes ago, Longcol said:

Says our spokesperson for 19th century Marxist / Leninism with a dash of Rees-Moggism thrown in for good measure.

 

And links to back up your assertions in the first two paragraphs would be helpful.

 

 

Booty and Ann, sitting in a tree...

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/ann-widdecombe/122963/TV-licence-fee-bullies-are-on-my-case-again/amp

 

Must be odd for such a Marxist revolutionary to end up on Widdecombe’s side so often.

[Pettytom]

3 minutes ago, onewheeldave said:

It is an unjust law that unfairly targets the vulnerable and poor. As you well know Carboot does not have a problem with 'the concept', he/she knows it is illegal to watch bbc live without a licence and is not arguing otherwise, he/she is arguing that that law is immoral, which I agree with fully.

 

The tragedy is that all those women who have been imprisoned or forced to live it constant debt as a result of being prosecuted over this, could have avoided it all by simply refusing to engage with the 'enforcement officer'- they should have simply shut the door in his/her face; 

 

To be clear, you cannot be imprisoned for non-payment of the TV license.