Posted on 01/18/2021 3:25:46 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
THE VAN IS COMING FOR YOU To ensure a regular income, the BBC runs enforcement operations under the TV Licencing trade name, the entity which is responsible for administering the system. Records are kept of licences and their expiry dates, and investigations are made into households suspected of owning a television who have not paid the requisite fees. To encourage compliance, TV Licencing regularly sends sternly worded letters to those who have let their licence lapse or have not purchased one. In the event this fails, they may arrange a visit from enforcement officers. These officers aren’t empowered to forcibly enter homes, so in the event a homeowner declines to cooperate with an investigation, TV Licencing will apply for a search warrant. This may be on the basis of evidence such as a satellite dish or antenna spotted on the roof of a dwelling, or a remote spied on a couch cushion through a window.
Based on an alleged BBC submission for a search warrant in recent years, there may be optical methods used in which reflected light from a television in a viewer’s home is compared to a live broadcast signal The BBC declined to answer the Freedom of Information request with any details of their methods, other than to say they have employed vehicles and handheld devices in enforcement efforts. However, given the multitude of broadcast, cable and satellite channels now available, the comparison effort would necessarily be much harder, leading some to suspect the days of the detector van are largely over.
(Excerpt) Read more at hackaday.com ...
Also...if you hook a water hose to the spigot outside...don’t forget to pay your “Hose Pipe Tax”! Not kidding.
In the US, “TV Taxes” are paid through the general fund for that thing called the FCC.
In England, they decided to make it a user fee.
The van is no worse than any other tax hungry government trying to spy on citizens, sort of like using satellite imagery to see if there’s an extra structure on your yard to increase your property tax, like they do here.
Slice and dice the taxation method how you like, the fundamental problem is always the spending.
There’s nothing so odd about that! (I forget the rest.)
“There seemed to be a fee or license for everything.”
A friend took a position in London, thinking he was way ahead on the package plus, he did not have to purchase health insurance!
Until he talked with the locals. They told him would be nuts to depend on the NHS! Not many use it by choice.
He bought the insurance.
I was hoping someone would, but you overachieved!
Yep, NHS is a slow and ugly way to die. And to think the NHS was a response to the A.J.Cronin book The Citadel.
An incredible number of their court cases are for the fines for non payment.
No, I was stationed in England for 3 years and it's true that they had detection vans, though I never saw one. Rather than have commercials you had to buy a license and I always kept mine current.
In addition to the BBC, there was an independent channel that did have commercials.
The shows on BB-1 and BBC-2 didn't necessarily start and end on the half hour. A show might start at 7:17 and end at 8:42. You really needed a guide to know what was playing. One annoying thing was that a show you wanted to watch might end on BBC-1 at 8:42 but a show that you also wanted to watch might start on BBC-2 at 8:23.
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
Years ago I was a manager in a cable company.
One of our tricks was to intentionally disconnect entire apartment buildings, then wait for each individual resident to call.
If they were current in their bill, they were reconnected.
If not, they were not connected.
In some buildings as many as half the folks were stealing the service up until that point.
Rinse and repeat once a year, (once a quarter in really bad areas) and it was amazing how the number of paying customers improved...
One house at a time is the _hard_ way...
My motto—work smarter, not harder. :-)
A little off tangent but I watched a couple episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus on Netflix over the weekend. Thanks to the citizens of the UK for financing it!
At least they get to wait in months long lines to see a doctor....for free of course.
"It's just gone 8 o'clock and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode."
Jawohl!
(actually that was working smarter, I hope they promoted you or you got a better gig).
“Also...if you hook a water hose to the spigot outside...don’t forget to pay your “Hose Pipe Tax”! Not kidding.”
I had to look that one up, not that I didn’t believe you or anything...
It’s a fact, Jack!
Still do.
A UK television license in 2020 is 157.5 GBP or a little more than $214.
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