The BBC and their bastard offshoot TV Licensing want everyone in the UK to believe they need a TV licence. They also want everyone to believe they have state of the art equipment, which can pinpoint evaders in the blink of an eye.
They propagate this claptrap for one reason and one reason alone - greed.
The law requires that a licence is obtained for equipment that is
"installed or used" for "receiving or recording a television programme
at the same time (or virtually the same time) as it is received by
members of the public". Anyone not using equipment in that manner does not need a licence, which is a legal matter of fact rather than TV Licensing fiction. We refer to these people as being legally licence free and believe they are entitled to live without the stress and inconvenience of TV Licensing's correspondence and employees.
The BBC want everyone to buy a licence because it's how they make their income. Unlike commercial channels, which actually have to put a bit of effort into their continued survival, the BBC creams off almost £4 billion a year from the general public by divine right. It doesn't matter how many gallons of champagne they piss up the walls of Broadcasting House on election night, thanks to the "unique way" the BBC is funded they think they can do pretty much anything they like.
TV Licensing want everyone to buy a licence because the more they sell the more they are rewarded by the BBC. Furthermore, each TV Licensing employee that sells a licence, regardless if the sale is legitimate or not, receives a commission payment for their endeavours. Make no mistake that every TV Licensing salesmen has pound signs etched on their mind.
Today I have read another story about a legally licence free householder intimidated by TV Licensing on his doorstep. It's an all too familiar story, so I have no doubt about its accuracy. As TV Licensing salesmen pull on their bulletproof y-fronts in the morning they somehow think they are exempt from the law of the land, but that is definitely not the case.
The householder answered the door as he was expecting a delivery. He was greeted by a TV Licensing salesman soiling his doorstep. After flashing his Blue Peter style ID card the TV Licensing vermin went into verbal diarrhoea mode about the property being unlicensed and demanding entry to confirm why. The householder, to his credit, stood his ground and refused. Not unreasonable, as we know that TV Licensing employ a fair proportion of undesirables. It's at this point that some TV Licensing salesmen show their real colours by threatening consequences for daring to challenge their self-styled "authority". TV Licensing's own rules make it very clear that their employees should never issue baseless threats, but it doesn't seem to deter them. I am of the opinion that a lot of TV Licensing employees are so mentally inferior they struggle to read and comprehend their own documents.
They have two standard threats:
- The "I will come back with the police" threat: This is not the case. A TV Licensing salesman has no automatic right of entry into a person's property and threatening them with the police does not change that fact. If you are ever confronted with this TV Licensing lie we suggest the following response: "Hold on a second and I will call the police on your behalf, as you are now trespassing on my property and issuing threats designed to intimidate me... I said hold on (as they run from the doorstep, trainers squelching with all the piss running down their trouser leg)... I'll ring the police for you!"
- The "I will come back with a search warrant" threat: Again, this is not the case. A person who is legally licence free need never worry about this threat. For TV Licensing to get a warrant they need to present evidence to a Magistrate, under oath, that they have reasonable grounds to suspect an offence is being committed. They won't have that evidence in the case of a legally licence free property. That said we are aware of cases where TV Licensing have obtained a search warrant, carried out their search and found zero evidence of an offence being committed. You are welcome to draw your own conclusions from that observation.
It is always advisable to have a camera handy and film any encounter with TV Licensing. It is perfectly legal to do that and gives valuable evidence later on when they make a complete tit of themselves!
Good luck and happy filming!
5 comments:
What a load of rubbish you are writing. The BBC does not want 'everyone' to have a licence and certainly not in the context that you are referring to. All that they ask is that those people who use a TV to watch live television should pay their TV licence.
Whether or not the TV licence is the right method of funding the BBC is another topic for debate and there are pros and cons on both sides of the argument.
I agree with you that the letters are threatening etc but, please, get off your high horse about the 'greed' etc.
Thanks for your comment. We'll agree to differ.
@Anon: You do realise this is an anti TV licence blog and not the BBC appreciation society?
Ah, Mr Anonymous first poster, I see we have another TVL/BBC Fanboy.
Feel free to go on believing that the BBC is good value for money, and that TVL is perfectly justified in its constant "above the law" conduct and other downright illegal activities. You are perfectly free to believe that thier staff are "officers", have powers on level with the Police and have detecting equipment that can pinpoint a TV's location accurate to a square foot from miles away through concrete glass and metal.
Maybe some people would like to know the truth, and not some pack of lies and spin from a greedy commercial company working to extend its bottom line no matter how they achieve it. A company that has no real teeth whatsoever and bases it entire operation on a public perception of fear through 40-odd years of agressive marketing and false claims.
As far as I can see there is no "high horse" involved here, just reporting of facts that the BBC/TVL mafia don't want the general public to know, so they will continue like sheep blindly funding and organisation that churns out tripe with its over-paid, underachieving staff travelling on thier gold-plated gravy-train that has no controls on how the public's money is spent.
Granted the blog's author "admin" can get a little flowery in his language when describing the way that the TVL/BBC carry on, but when you hear about what this answerable-to-no-one organisation get up to, one is inclined to forgive the odd colourful metaphor used in its reporting.
To those of us that are under constant harrassment from TVL/BBC, blogs like this give us the confidence to carry on being "Legally licence free" without worrying about constant barage of empty threats from TVL.
The word is slowly getting out - keep up the good work!
>>8 Years LLF and a file full of threat-o-grams for my trouble<<
Stuart says "Granted the blog's author "admin" can get a little flowery in his language when describing the way that the TVL/BBC carry on, but when you hear about what this answerable-to-no-one organisation get up to, one is inclined to forgive the odd colourful metaphor used in its reporting."
The writing style is phenomenally well worded and a 100% accurate refelection on the scum that we know as TV Licensing.
The author does more than his fair share of work to discredit the BBC using his intellect which is way above any verminous piece of filth working for tvl or the BBC. An almost tireless campaign hosted here on the blog and via the FOI act must be applauded.
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