I love the BBC

by **luckiekevin** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:05 am

http://sundaymag.ca/index.php?id=718

and old Parliament curmudgeons who make Republican Politicians look like the complete idiots that they are.

by **BOREDGIRL** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:18 am

by **Stopper** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:22 am

I haven't sheen Tony Benn on the telly for a while. Fantashtic bloke, 'shpecially when he'sh talking about the Iraq war and democrashy.

by **unriggable** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:45 am

This is painful to watch in the sense that I feel awful for John bolton (even though I hate the prick).

by **MeDeFe** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:05 pm

Now that's one charismatic guy.

by **luckiekevin** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:28 pm

As an American, I need to say that I really do appreciate the British for their grasp of the English Language in moments like these.

by **luckiekevin** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:31 pm

And for those of you who are lucky enough to an amazing source of public news like the BBC, realize that this sort of discourse is a rare occurrence on American television.

by **gethine** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:41 pm

everyone in the uk with a television has to buy a license for £120. the bbc gets this cash. and makes some decent telly that everyone else on the planet enjoys for free.
you should appreciate it even more knowing that we are funding it for you all!

by **MeDeFe** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:41 pm

Now I do.

by **flashleg8** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:56 pm

Tony Benn's the man! If only we had the old commie in power instead of the Phony Tory Tony Blair...

by **btownmeggy** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:50 pm

gethine wrote:everyone in the uk with a television has to buy a license for £120. the bbc gets this cash. and makes some decent telly that everyone else on the planet enjoys for free.
you should appreciate it even more knowing that we are funding it for you all!

Is it true that the BBC secret police go around in unmarked vans with satellites determining who has a television without a license, and that offenders are taken to gulags?

by **Ruben Cassar** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:56 pm

The BBC is simply the best news channel on earth.

Where I live we only get BBC World and BBC Prime unfortunately. I think taxpayers in Britain get BBC 1, 2, 3, 4? So you get more for your taxes.

Btw, I still have to pay to get BBC channels so I don't get them free either although I do have a choice.

by **Stopper** on Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:05 pm

btownmeggy wrote:Is it true that the BBC secret police go around in unmarked vans with satellites determining who has a television without a license, and that offenders are taken to gulags?

Hah. I have once seen a white van with a satellite dish on the top, spinning around, roaming around the estate where I lived - my mother told us that was the licence detector van - but that was over twenty years ago, and I've always wondered since if that was actually a defective childish memory on my part, given that I know no way that someone could set up a van and detect whether or not someone had a TV licence.

Nevertheless, the hundreds of single mothers that did go to gaol for not paying their licence fees was an issue, well amongst Guardian readers anyway, a while back.

Anyway, just in case you are one of these people, and there have been one or two on here, who attack the BBC for being a state-run TV organisation - I'll say it again - as long as the government is democratically-elected, and there are proper checks and balances, it shouldn't matter.

Unless the country is Italy, and the prime minister is Silvio Berlusconi.

I put that last sentence in there for you, Cassar, you Italophile, you.

by **flashleg8** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:45 pm

The vans are bollocks. My mates dad worked for the licensing board, he said there’s nothing in them at all and its a fake that they detect if your watching. All they do is compare your address with a master list of TV license holders. If your address had a license but didn't renew it they call round - everyone’s got a TV anyway.

They actually have no powers to enter your house anyway unless you let them in. Which leads me to this anecdote:

I got done by the bastards 3 years ago. The sneaky f*cks rang my old flats buzzer and said to my bird they were delivering a parcel. When she let them in they said they were from the license department and asked to see our license. Unbelievable deception! I would have raised hell with complaints if I clearly wasn't acting illegally myself :wink:

But they still give you time to pay it before they issue a fine. So we never actually lost out.

by **Anarkistsdream** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:51 pm

Wait wait wait...

You guys have to pay 120 pounds a year to own a television???

by **The1exile** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:54 pm

Anarkistsdream wrote:Wait wait wait...

You guys have to pay 120 pounds a year to own a television???

Technically, it's to use it or something rather than own it. And it might be slightly under. But... yes.

[size=0]cba to find my license.[/size]

by **Guiscard** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:06 pm

The1exile wrote:
Anarkistsdream wrote:Wait wait wait...

You guys have to pay 120 pounds a year to own a television???

Technically, it's to use it or something rather than own it. And it might be slightly under. But... yes.

[size=0]cba to find my license.[/size]

Nah its about £120... And you have to pay it if you own equipment which is capable of recieving a signal, so unless you have a genuinely broken telly then you can never use a tele and still have to pay.

Have the bastards on my back at the moment and I don't own a telly, as I can't get any decent signal in my flat. Load of bollocks. I'm not paying a premium rate phone charge to 'arrange an inspection' so they can prove it.

by **Anarkistsdream** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:07 pm

If you don't own a telly, why would you have to pay, Guis?

<<<(Sorry, stupid American)

by **Guiscard** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:49 pm

I don't, they just think I've got one because I live in a block of flats and some people do have TVs. They send letters and a guy has called but I wasn't in. Got some legal shit through the other day. Bit annoying but I just ignore it. My girlfriend's grandma gets legal threats every year, has done for 10 years... in all that time shes never had a telly

Worth it though. I'm a strong believer in having a nationally funded quality TV station with no commercials and quality programming. Whatever problems the BBC have they're still the best TV organisation in the world.

by **Anarkistsdream** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:00 pm

Guiscard wrote:I don't, they just think I've got one because I live in a block of flats and some people do have TVs. They send letters and a guy has called but I wasn't in. Got some legal shit through the other day. Bit annoying but I just ignore it. My girlfriend's grandma gets legal threats every year, has done for 10 years... in all that time shes never had a telly

Worth it though. I'm a strong believer in having a nationally funded quality TV station with no commercials and quality programming. Whatever problems the BBC have they're still the best TV organisation in the world.

Yeah... American television has more commercials than show... When I rent a TV series on DVD, I suddenly find my hour long shows have 38 minute runtimes... WTF is up with that??? haha

by **Stopper** on Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:22 pm

Guiscard wrote:I don't, they just think I've got one because I live in a block of flats and some people do have TVs. They send letters and a guy has called but I wasn't in. Got some legal shit through the other day. Bit annoying but I just ignore it. My girlfriend's grandma gets legal threats every year, has done for 10 years... in all that time shes never had a telly

I seem to remember reading that the licensing enforcement people make the general assumption that any address that doesn't have a TV licence for it is probably dodging it. Given that 99.99% of people have at least one telly in the house, they're probably right - but that still leaves plenty of genuine people getting harassed.

by **DAZMCFC** on Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:04 am

to anarkistsdream, that is why all of your sports take hours upon hours to finish,because they have to stop for adverts all the time. in british sports (most of them) there is a 15 minute break at halftime and that is it, they have to fit the adverts into that and even then it will only be 2 3 minute slots and on the bbc there are none at all. :wink:

by **Balsiefen** on Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:22 am

Guiscard wrote:
Worth it though. I'm a strong believer in having a nationally funded quality TV station with no commercials and quality programming. Whatever problems the BBC have they're still the best TV organisation in the world.

Absolutely agree BBC is by far the best station on everything

i hate it on ITV when you get a good program and you just about get through the opening credits when its time for another advert break and "Showbiz news"

by **Newcastle** on Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:21 am

i agree with Balsiefen. who wants to know about "showbiz news"?

by **Eddie Guerrero** on Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:23 am

On the regular 5 channels, the two BBC channels are the best.

I'm not sure about overall.

I love the BBC

I love the BBC

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