I love living in Britain. I will miss the British landscape and people when we return to America. But there are some things I will not miss. And in fact, there are a few things that drive me crazy about living here, I suppose because it seems counter-intuitive (or maybe as an American it just challenges certain privileges I have grown up having).
One of these is the TV License. If you want to own a TV here, you have to buy a license to watch it. Which made me wonder when we first arrived in the UK, why a license? Isn’t that for hunting, driving, you know… things you need to be qualified in order to do? Whoever heard of needing qualifications to watch television? I’m not sure it requires many brain cells.
But a license you must have, to the tune of £120 ($200) a year. This “telly tax” provides us with 5 channels–2 of them government owned (the BBC) and 3 other networks. Pros: no commercials ever on the BBC channels. And loads of awesome documentaries & quality programs (and a few lousy ones thrown in). Cons: the cost (it works out to about $17 a month).
It’s like a mandatory cable charge. You can’t opt out if you want to watch TV, unless you buy a special TV set that has its receiver removed (so you can still play videos & DVD’s). The funny thing is, they send out special enforcer vans that can detect TV’s receiving the BBC signal. They compare addresses of who’s not paying (practically everybody is) with the addresses they “listen” to. They they bust the illegal TV watchers. Here’s a link to a UK site about it:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/detectionandpenalties.jsp
No, Jenno and I are not “licence evaders”; though we don’t like it, we affirm God’s Word as it teaches us to submit to the governing authorities, and pay the piper.
If I had to admit it, I’d say that the reason why it provokes me to mild outrage is that as an American, I have grown up thinking that watching TV is a basic inalienable right. It’s like, in the Constitution, isn’t it? Well, maybe not. But what was actually a privilege in American culture, I assumed should always be free. Now that I look back at it, ”free TV” wasn’t always great, either. TV reception in some states is lousy, depending on where you live. In the Diablo Valley east of Oakland, CA, you can’t get all the network channels unless you buy cable. I suppose most people reading this have cable TV anyway, so it’s a moot point I suppose. You already pay something every month, so who cares, right?
But the thought of being forced to pay for non-cable programs makes the American part of me grind my teeth. I guess British tax laws have driven Americans crazy ever since the Boston Tea Party. What will they think of next over here?
Hmm… how about charging people in Britain for driving on the road, per mile?
They’re already proposing it! (we will thankfully have escaped this particular tax). See below:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/05/nroad05.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_05112006
The United Kingdom has many attractive features; the government’s appetite for surveillance is not one of them.
Brian
Tim Vander Pol said
Brian,
We already have a tax per mile here in the states. It is called a Ton Mile tax, courtesy of our friends to the south in Oregon. Since we run commercial vehicles in the state (Peninsula Truck Lines) we have to track every mile, the axel combinations and the total gross weight for every vehicle every day. To accomadate this we have put hard mount GPS units in all of our vehicles so we can make sure each state taxing agency can get the appropriate amount of our money:(. By the way this doesn’t yet apply to individuals, but Oregon is trying to find a way to apply it to everyone in the state.
Karen said
Hmmm. Yes. That would drive me crazy. We do not have cable TV, partly because we don’t want to pay money every month just to watch TV. If all TV were charged, i’d be pretty darn annoyed too. Hurrah for the Revolutionary War! Free TV! Yeah!
flamingedna said
Okay. Now I KNOW you’re mentally moving home. You spelled it “license,” not “licence.” What if you elect not to have a television at all? Do they still come after you? I’d be tempted not to have a TV just to see if their (bogus-sounding) Buck Rogers “television detectors” would “detect” a TV where there was none. I think they just keep records of addresses where people haven’t paid and go after them.
flamingedna said
Oh, by the way, flamingedna is my wordpress name
. I was so impressed with the stuff you could do with wordpress versus xanga that I moved my blog to wordpress.
.
This is Shelbi
juanito said
Can you still have a black and white TV for cheaper? That’s what we had when we lived in the UK – it was about half price.
Honestly, i think we’d simply do without.
Brian said
Thanks for all the comments guys, it’s great to read them.
Tim–I guess with trucking it makes some sense, but I wonder how long that Ton Mile tax law has been in place. It must really add to the overhead cost of transport business like yours.
Karen–hurrah indeed!
Shelbi–You can decide not to have a TV at all, and those are the addresses they drive by and check. They actually can detect a signal being received to your TV set. But very few people don’t have a TV here, so you’re under suspicion it seems. Gasp! Can people really live without TV?
Juanito-Yes, you can still have a black and white TV for cheaper… and it is a lot less. I grew up with one too for a few years, but going back would be tough. I’d do without, but since we get rain every three days or so, it’s nice for the kids to have TV to watch. Although we get the most use of it for the awesome BBC nature documentaries. It puts PBS to shame. But then, PBS does not charge the American public millions. Hmmm… I might actually give to one of their geeky telethons when we get back to the States. Supporting quality programs by choice–what a concept!