Resistance is useless - BBC Gestapo Tactics

[steevo]

Resistance is useless
Andrew Bolt
Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 12:17pm


It is astonishing that the BBC should think this commercial was a warning to viewers to pay their BBC TV licence fees, rather than a warning that some bureaucrats have far, far too much power

You Tube Video of TVL ad

How telling.

[Teddy Bear]

I can tell you Steevo that this form of 'Get One or Get Done' intimidation started by Capita, the company who collect the license fees, has now been picked up by other governmental agencies.
It shows how little those with power in this country really care about what dynamics and forces they are employing to satisfy their greed. Having lost the respect of the populace that would wish to support them, they have to resort to mafia style 'protection racket' tactics.

[Teddy Bear]

The Times has come out with an article today that highlights the very point raised here, referring to the BBC as 'The Gestapo'.

Watch out, the Gestapo are about
[glow=red,2,300]The sinister TV licence advertisement shows how we have become slaves of the database state[/glow]
Eamonn Butler
The blades of the helicopter beat as it hovers over a city of computer components. A police siren sounds, changing pitch as it speeds to some crime scene. We hear a big dog barking. Then comes the authorities' message: “Your town, your street, your home. It's all in our database.” The official voice is calm and patronising: “It's impossible to hide,” we are reminded. There is a knock on the door. Our palms sweat. Everything fades to black.

No, I'm not in some nightmare from the days of Cold War Russia. Nor on the wrong side of the law in communist China. I'm here and now, in the UK, watching the latest advertisement from the BBC as it tries to make us pay our licence fee. But however fine and well-spoken the words, this Orwellian campaign - with its menacing soundtrack of licence-dodgers being rounded up by airborne police dog-handlers - is complete thuggery. (The effete BBC doesn't of course wield the cosh itself. It contracts such persuasion to TV Licensing, a consortium of Capita and other private businesses.)

In just 40 seconds, this sinister advertisement shows how far we have become the slaves of the database state, rather than its masters. You thought we lived in a free society? In a free society, no government could tell its citizens, with such quiet condescension and with no hint of embarrassment: “We are spying on you. We know all about you. Just watch your step.”

Nor are these Gestapo tactics new. Years ago, similar advertisements showed a family laughing at some comedy programme on TV. Comes the voice-over: “If you have a TV licence, you're laughing.” In the dimly-lit street, a van draws up. Black leather boots crunch up the path, the family still oblivious. The voice continues: “If not...” A gloved hand presses the bell. Suddenly, the family stops laughing, their faces gripped by sheer dread.

It's time we citizens stood up against this state-sponsored intimidation, particularly now that anti-terror legislation is being used to spy on whether our dogs are fouling the pavement and that we're closing our wheelie-bin properly. And it's time we told our unelected officials that we don't much like “our town, our street, our home” being in their database - given their ability to lose it in the mail or leave it on laptops that they forget in the pub.

I'd like to see the people who design these malevolent adverts - and the BBC executives who approved them - hauled up before a House of Commons committee to be told that citizens, not they, are the real bosses. And I'd like to see the BBC funded by some mechanism - like taking adverts that don't actually terrorise the general public.

Dr Eamonn Butler is Director of the Adam Smith Institute

[Teddy Bear]

Reading the response from the BBC at the end of this article, one can see that if they can justify inflicting this kind of dynamic into society to scare people into paying, they are truly disgusting vile sub human pieces of crud. Since the government has followed suit with a similar strategy to collect car tax, benefit fraudsters and the like, they are not any better.

BBC to investigate bully tactics for television licence collection
By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 10/07/2008

The BBC is to launch an investigation into the bullying tactics used to collect the television licence.

The BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body, has called for the inquiry amid complaints about the heavy handed approach to licence collection taken by TV Licensing, the organisation responsible for gathering the fees.

Some people have reported receiving dozens of threatening letters from TV Licensing even though they do not have a television set. Under the BBC Charter, new responsibilities to review how the licence fee is collected have been given to the Trust, which replaced the Corporation's board of governors.

Last year Gary Streeter, the Tory MP for South West Devon, put down an early day motion, signed by 60 MPs, objecting to the behaviour of TV Licensing.

One recent advert warned: "Your town, your street, your home... It is all in the database" against the sound of helicopters, barking dogs and door-knocking. Mr Streeter said: "This is a serious matter. A surprising number of people - particularly elderly people - don't have a television and I don't see why they should be bullied and harassed in that way."

David Maclean, the Tory MP for Penrith and The Border, said the system was "shambolic" adding: "The BBC can't hide behind this. TV Licensing is acting under their instructions as a contractor and it is time to call the dogs off."

The BBC Annual Report and Accounts published this week said: "The financial health of the BBC depends on collecting the licence fee efficiently and effectively and keeping evasion within bounds. Over the past year we are pleased to note that the combined cost of collection and evasion is lower than the previous year as a percentage of gross licence fee income. However evasion itself has remained steady at 5.1 per cent with the fall being driven by a reduction in collection costs.

"The Trust has a duty to make sure the collection process is not only efficient, but also appropriate and proportionate. We recognise that this is an issue that can arouse strong emotions. We have begun a review to ensure the right balance is being struck between the need to raise the maximum revenue and the need to avoid heavy-handedness, especially with people who do not own a television set and therefore do not need a licence. We expect to report our findings by the end of 2008."

A TV Licensing spokesperson said: "Ninety-eight per cent of households in the UK have TV sets and of these, the vast majority are correctly licensed. However, a minority do try to avoid paying the licence fee, and TV Licensing has a duty to enforce the law on behalf of those who pay.

"Unfortunately, if a licence is required, some people will only buy one when warned of the consequences of being unlicensed - whether by letter, or through our ongoing communications campaigns. It is for this reason that some of our communications contain messages that are designed to deter a potential evader, whilst others give general information such as payment options.

"We do not presume that everyone is guilty of committing an offence, and do try to ensure that non-viewers are not overly troubled by our enquiries."