Thursday, January 20, 2005

Abolish the TV license........ please!

I first had the logic of a TV license brought into question by a Canadian called Art Henry about twenty years ago. At the time, I thought that the state was my friend so whilst his arguments made sense I just accepted it as the way it is in Britain.

At the time, it was probably all of twenty quid and I didn't worry about it.

Today, I found out that the childcare place we use has decided to remove the tellys because they will now have to pay a fee based on the number of children involved, getting on for a £Grand for their two locations. Whilst telly watching is deliberately minimised, it now means they can't watch the occasional video or DVD either.

The laws of unintended consequences strike again, two less licenses & considerable nuisance value.

I don't watch much telly anyway so would be quite happy if the BBC raised money via market forces rather than punitive taxation. The argument that it is voluntary doesn't wash with me either, there is no way of receiving non-BBC channels without a license. They'll be taxing internet connections next.....

No comments: