Re: UKNM: Re: 324 tax on digital TV?

[Ray Taylor]

Phil Gyford <

philgyford [dot] com

> said:


>I'd say the license fee as it stands is incredibly unfair and should be

>means-tested in some practical way,


I don't think there is anything wrong with the licence fee as it stands,

other than perhaps a need to reduce it by at least 50% for blind and deaf TV

owners. But I can't see why there should be this bizarre, medieval

assumption that all new inventions (in this case digital TV broadcast)

should be allotted to a government-protected monopoly, or in this case for

the monopoly to be given a �56-per-customer helping hand.


How come it's okay to subsidise "public-service TV" (whatever that means)

when British coal mining, for instance, is destroyed rather than cushion a

short-term price depression? Come the next oil crisis or nuclear reactor

disaster I'd rather have a thriving fossil fuel industry, than an army of

state-sponsored TV executives.


Of course, the coal industry did not have access to unlimited free TV

advertising to fight it's corner in the 80s, unlike the BBC, which certainly

spares no expense to tell us what good use it makes of our money.


The licence fee should now be frozen, and eventually phased out (perhaps).

The BBC should learn from its competitors and reserve a part of its massive

income for investment in new technologies.


By what right does a British government impose such a charge anyway? Rupert

Murdoch may well be an ugly rich bastard, but is that any reason to impose a

commercial fine of �24 per customer on Sky Digital? And why can't I have �24

for everyone who opens a freeserve account? I would be happy to provide

minority web content as part of the deal.


The question of whether you like BBC programmes better than ITV or not is

irrelevant. TV is now such a huge market that there really is no need for

the taxpayer / licence fee payer to pay any more for it.


And Phil, I was only kidding when I said the BBC and the Royal family should

be stuffed. I'm afraid I never bothered to learn the smiley code, and I

don't think there is a smiley that properly represents my twisted sense of

humour anyway.


Ray Taylor

Campaign to make the Royal Family and the BBC work a bit harder for their

living 

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