ANDREW BRIDGEN MP is on a mission to bring down a
broadcasting Leviathan which demands on threat of imprisonment, and a hefty
fine, a yearly tax of £5 billion from the British public. According to Bridgen;
"On current
trends, that will see 100 more people put in prison and over 300,000 citizens
criminalised ". This Goliath of broadcasting goes by the name
of the BBC: it demands financial remuneration from every television owner in
the land: the tax is for the mere
ownership of a television set – not for watching the BBC mind you, but just
for owning a television
The
unfairness of this system would have been readily appreciated by medieval
peasants who had to pay taxes of whatever value demanded by their robber barons
and city sheriffs – such as the one immortalised in fiction through the story
of Robin Hood.
We are obliged
to pay for services provided by the likes of the utility companies. When it
comes to the energy companies we have a choice (if we wish to make it); when it
comes to the BBC we have none; but when it comes to one of the BBC's main competitors[1]
– Sky: Rupert Murdock was given no such right by parliament to demand you pay
him through taxation. You either bought into one or more of his services or you
did not – the choice is yours. No one will be imprisoned or face a fine if they
default with Sky; no one will be left with a prison record if they default with
Sky. They will have their service terminated -
and even then Sky will welcome them back when they are financially able
to buy their services once again when they become solvent.
No
prison and no fine; and no criminal record. Only a state regulated body such as
the BBC would ever countenance either fining or gaoling a tax defrauder for
owning a television set. This is madness: or it would be in a rational world; a
world that the BBC governors and its chairman (sorry, chairperson) seems not to
inhabit when it comes to broadcasting in the modern world. The BBC should no
longer be able to go cap in hand to the politicians each year to increase the
tax on television ownership, in the hope that they grant its yearly increase,
and adding further to the prison population and criminalisation of BBC tax
defaulters.
THE BBC has, over the decades, seen itself (along with
politicians and a majority of the British people) as the finest broadcaster in
the world. The institution was much loved by the British people (including
myself). The term 'auntie' was a cosy reference that kept the population
enamoured even under the Savile years in the 1970's and 80's.
Andrew Bridgen referred to the BBC's mission
statement and quoted the following; " [the BBC] exists to serve the public, and
its mission is to inform, educate and entertain.” This implies at the very least, that objectivity free from
all political bias, is the pre-requisite when it comes to educating and
informing, as well as reporting, by a public broadcaster – the only part of
this mission it has managed to live up to today, is to entertain (but even hear
it is losing ground fast to it competitors).
The bias in the BBC on issues such
as global warming, membership of the EU; multiculturalism, and immigration,
cannot be disputed. The BBC's former employees have broken the silence on this
institution's liberal bias. The BBC suffers the delusion that the nation is 100
per cent socially liberal and supports multiculturalism and immigration which
gives them the right to dictate the liberal agenda that they support.
REALITY
IS SOMETHING that, apparently, the BBC is out of tune with. They believe the whole
UK have bought into their multicultural
liberal demesne; where they and they alone dictate the liberal agenda. They
will not test this of course by doing away with the licence tax and allowing
themselves to be cut adrift into the
private sector to survive on their own. The BBC dares not test its belief in
its own superiority within the market place.
The BBC is becoming a liberal
PRAVDA[2]; being
allowed to continue by politicians who call themselves democratic. Now this
broadcaster is looking into the possibility of charging the same licence tax
for those who use its services on line. I firmly believe that the BBC believes
themselves as vital to this nation's culture, as a water supply is to our
people; and without it all cultural expression would be dead, and a new dark
age would descend on these isles.
I doubt if Andrew Bridgen will
ever accomplish his task of reigning in or better still doing away with the
licence tax – but I wish him well in his attempt.
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