RadioBanter - View Single Post

February 9th 06, 05:20 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

wrote:

I would think that the snoopers at GCHQ can easily eaves drop on anyone
as they'll have all the equipment and power to do so. No one's safe!
As for TV detector vans, well that gets me going. The UK is a fairly
easy going place but why the state prosecutes people for not having a
TV license is beyond me. A complete waste of public money. I have some
experience of the prison servive, not as an inmate! and there are
dozens of people in the nick for not having a licence. Pathethic. I do
not own a TV but get several letters each year which are quite
threatening. I hand them over to my solicitor nowadays and I get a
grovelling reply from the b**stards in Bristol but it all starts again
in January. Meanwhile big business continues to avoid its tax
obligations and rifles pension funds while the state does nothing but
continues to harass me. Only in the UK.....
Keep looking over your shoulder....
Regards,
Alan

The original point of the UK's receiver licensing program was to fund
government broadcasting (BBC). Today, I suspect that the TV license
program is simply a profit center, and they don't want to stop it
because the loss of revenue would be too great. I'm surprised that they
would sentence people to prison for not having a license. Wouldn't a
fine be more appropriate? Of course, since the govt is incompetent, they
try to get license fees out of people who don't own a TV. Here in
America, we have big business not paying taxes at all while poor people
trying to claim a tax credit specifically designed for them are audited
and prosecuted mercilessly for no reason at all other than that rich
people are allowed to cheat on taxes while the poor are not. At least we
don't have to license our TVs to the govt-a big advantage of not having
an official broadcaster. At least the UK doesn't license radios anymore.
I have a British radio from about 1970 that I bought on Ebay, a
transistor model with LW/MW/FM, and the license number is on the bottom.
Quite an interesting artifact.