All posts by Briantist
Below are all of Briantist's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Charles Stuart: The current system is a per-household charge and that seems to have worked OK for the last several decades.I'm not sure what your "no household has more than four children or four adults" means.
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Ian: The costs of administration online as much lower. Perhaps there could be an extra charge if you want to use paper, say £10?
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John Hunter: May I draw your attention to the words "Some of this comes directly from a transalation of http://www.rundfunkbeitra…ot;?
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PETER HUGHES: I covered the whole gamut of options before: BBC 2017: Tell me about the 16 options to collect the BBC 4 billion quid a year? includes that.However, I think we need to close in on the three that have political support.
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Richard E: I think your personal bias is showing there. The independent research done shows that the BBC didn't do that at all.
[1]
But I guess you're the kind of person who thinks that hearing another point of view is wrong so you're never going to be satisfied without one-sided propaganda effort.
"these voters now hate the BBC "The things is... they don't.
They love the BBC. They actually like to hear a balanced point of view. Year in, year out, the research shows that the BBC is used and trusted by voters of all persuasions.
And - another thing - is these voters don't want to have the BBC as a subscription service. Because they don't want to pay two or three times for the same thing!
[1] Channels 4 and 5 giving Tories more airtime than other broadcasters | Media | The Guardian
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Sorry if I've overdone it a little with the detail. It just came out a bit less concise that I had hoped.
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Ian: I would say that the words of whoever it was that said that Thomas Jefferson said it, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance".There are certainly a lot of people with interests. Perhaps there are quite a few businesses with agendas that are anything but hidden.
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Fred Perkins: Thanks very much for that link. That is certainly an interesting summary of the "no parliamentary scrutiny is required to create a Royal Charter".
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MikeB: Thanks for your reply.
That is another good quote! Perhaps I should throw "No taxation without representation" into the mix too?
Your point is interesting. The majority of people in the UK do support the BBC, even when they buy newspapers run by self-interested Americans who are worth $14bn and claim that they are not part of The Establishment.
I hoped my diagram above the "Winner Takes All" line illustrates the capture-the-flag nature of the electoral system. However, I don't think that we can expect too many by-elections in the current year.
Interest aside as United States Presidents and control of Congress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia shows since WWII, the US system has only delivered the same party to all three arms of government for two years from 1954, four from 1977, 1994 and 2009.
I'm not sure if the press can keep the Salisbury Convention going. It isn't really down to the press, it is down to the individual lords voting "yes" to second and third readings of bills. As you rightly say, they don't have to face voters so they can do what they like.
If it were down to me then I would replace the Lords with something more modern and democratic, but it will be interesting to see how things progress as the next five Parliaments sit.
I don't really have any opinion of the Labour candidates. As far as I can see they need to go through the process that resulted in New Labour: listening to the public, having a media strategy, wanting to win but seem traumatised with how three-terms Tony Blair turned from Bambi to a megalomaniac.
I also agree with you about the current Tony Hall ideas. He seems to have missed the need to renew the love of the BBC with young people (the under 40s) and seems to want it to be like his last posting at the Royal Opera House.
The ease that the BBC can be manipulated by professionals because the cherished balance by strategies such as astroturfing has led to the problems they have with Climate Change and dealing with large Business.
I actually don't think that the subscription option will really fly in the next decade, but of course there are people employed out there to try and push that point of view.
The problem for the Barclay's and the Mail and the Express and Murdoch is that they are far too blatant and unsubtle: you don't get to be an MP or a Lord and not know Newspaper's publishers agenda.
I'm going to do as much as I can to try and keep things fair. I have gone to a great deal of effort over the last few years to try and "think outside the box" (sorry...) and look at every version of the BBC I could think of.
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Monday 18 May 2015 2:51PM
Darren: Thanks for that. Let me answer your points.
As this is a replacement for the TV Licence, the answer to the first question is "no". This is because people in receipt of state benefits already at least nominally get money to pay the TV Licence. This new "French" system changes the payment to being collected by TV Licensing to your local council, so you wouldn't expect to get it for free unless you are over 75 (as is the case at the moment).
No one at all would be exempt from this system. The over 75 would have their payment provided by the government, but this isn't an exemption. Every household pays. All of them.
There isn't a way of opting out. Just as there in no way of opting out of paying other taxes!
There isn't such thing as a "bedroom tax", that's just a political construct.
Yes, if you don't pay a tax you will be breaking the law. That's the way it is, as they say.
The BBC doesn't want to get into the subscription business with iPlayer or anything. Two reasons: it's a universal service as everyone pays, and the vast cost of denying 4% of the population not to say the inconvenience to the other 96% - isn't worth it. It would double what everyone has to pay.
It's easy to show different services outside the UK, a totally different matter to deal with who should be denied access in the UK.