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TV licensing

Anyone who has not applied for a licence because they have no television will be familiar with the bullying tactics and threatening letters used by a disbelieving BBC. The corporation demands access to your home to check all your rooms for televisions, even though they cannot possibly have detected a signal.

Contrast the attitude of the television police with that of the courts. Last year, almost 121,000 people were found guilty of licence evasion, but the average penalty was a fine of £137 - £2.50 less than the cost of the television licence itself! Of course most of the viewing public obtain a licence in the usual way but the courts clearly do not take evasion seriously. Perhaps this is because the BBC has long since lost all credibility as a politically neutral, publicly funded broadcasting company.