The Big Bully Con...or the BBC as they like to be known (TV Licence)

Member Name: blissman70

Product:	TV Licence
Date:	11/12/08 (146 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none really

Disadvantages: A bully with a little moustache knocking at your door....

Well, this is a topic which you're either for or against and is one of them debates which will always be discussed....

The Television licence fee is supposed to cover the tax of receiving a broadcasting over the airways, it is just that the fee goes directly to the BBC (the so called British Broadcasting company).

Whilst people are forced to pay for the licence fee I wonder how many, like myself, do not watch the BBC? So technically, people are being charged for a service that they do not want....why is this?

There are so many service providers in the 21st century that the licence fee has become an out of date, yet highly enforced, tax, criminalising people for not paying for a service that some did not ask for..? (This is almost as barmy as paying for a fitted kitchen that you did not order...???)
To be labelled a criminal, fined and possibly jailed, for not paying for something you may not use is a crime in itself.
And the way the fee is collected is also criminal, sending out what they call "enforcers" to bully and intimidate the venerable and needy until they give their bank details away....how criminal is that? (at least Dick Turpin wore a mask..??)

The way the BBC uses the money that they collect is also a crime and needs investigating.
Why should the British public be forced to pay a tax so the BBC can offer the likes of Patsy Palmer thousand of pounds to try and revive a depressing show?
And also an over paid so called chat show host who earns over a million pounds a year for basically nothing, paid for by you and I of course.

* Are people sick of being forced to pay for a service that I may not use..?

If you invested in free view do you not feel that you have been lied to as you still have to pay to receive the same broadcasting.? This in then not technically 'Free' view is it?

Some people are having to pay for their TV licence plus Sky or cable...is this fair?
You have the choice of having sky... but they don't come around to stick up a dish and then force you to pay for it even though you never wanted it in the first place do they..?? (not yet anyway).

* Revamp the BBC and bring it into the 21st century....

If the BBC were to become a pay per view service then would it become extinct? I believe so. The most popular programs would be bought out by the commercial channels and would continue regardless...
(Example.. Neighbours, bought out by channel 5 and still as popular).


The 'pro' group will say that the licence fee is worthwhile due to the brilliant service that the BBC offer....?

So let us look at the service they offer...

*The news...
also seen on ITV, Sky news, Channel 4, Channel 5 and most other channels being broadcast in the 21st century.

*Entertainment...!
To be honest, The sort of entertaining programs on the BBC can be found on other channels in similar formats.

*Advert free broadcasting....!

Well yes, the BBC do not interrupt their shows with adverts for cars and washing up liquids but some of the show which are appearing on the BBC need interrupting, plus, sometimes people need that interval to rush off to spend a penny or two...
But the BBC do tend to have there own type of adverts which cost the earth to make and are almost as irritating as watching an ex-soap actor selling double glazing...



* What do you get for the money this company have technically extorted from you..?

As I am writing this it just seems that all the BBC has to offer are dancing shows, depressing soaps, dancing show repeats, news reports, (which have already been broadcast on other channels), more dance shows, a documentary about some poor sod whose lost everything due to being forced to pay for something he didn't want, more news and more repeats of bloody dancing shows... and that's just BBC 1... (which is
Officially the best channel the BBC has got,.. The flag ship of entertainment..??)

What a shoddy selection for your money..? ( if this was blockbusters you'd walk away without paying wouldn't you..?)


Although the Beeb do have the odd broadcast which is entertaining... like the recent coverage of the Olympics from Beijing for instance... these rarities do not justify the dictatorship method of enforcing payments, technically making as much money as the BBC want whilst giving nothing back....

I mean, if your local mechanic failed to repair your vehicle then you'd be with-in your rights not to pay them... or if B and Q failed to deliver then you'd be legally entitled to get your money back.... So as the BBC offer nothing but trash covering 80% of it broadcasting then are we, the fee paying public, not entitled to our money back under the some rule covered under the trade description act or something...? Maybe even false advertising or there about...?
Are we not entitled to have our say on a service which we 'technically' pay for..?
Are we not entitled to have our say on some of the over paid so called stars which appear on the channel which we, the fee payer, pay for..?

We, the fee payer, are the ones that give our money to keep this company going but we are the ones that this company feel they have to intimidate if for some reason a direct debit fails or a cheque goes missing... This is not what freedom of choice is about... this is verging on the side a company as big as this bullying the individual, with the backing of the government, without having to answer to the people who pay their wages... (that's us by the way).

But, as there is very little the individual can do about it then this debate will live on for a long time... raging with-in us all...
We will simply have to continue allowing this company to steal money from our bank account under the threat of prosecution from some little Hitler who comes knocking at your door to read you your rights... (and all with the governments backing of course).

So until the country unites and stand tall to say NO MORE... give us back our freedom of choice and make the BBC actually earn their money with entertaining programming, thus paying so called stars exactly what they are worth, (probably pennies rather than pounds most of them), the BBC will continue to extort our money and spend it exactly how they want to, regardless of what they have to offer....


But for all those that will argue that the likes of Sky is a monthly payment giving the same format of programming, only more of it...well the fact is that you CHOOSE to have sky... simple as that... it is the chose that matters more than anything... I have chosen to go for freeview as it is a one off payment, but I am still FORCED to pay the licence fee...

Until then... we will simply just continue to moan...


* That's it...rant over and thank you for reading....

Summary: Would you pay to watch a movie if it wasn't entertaining ...????