meerkat wrote:But they should KNOW you don't have a set, Tony!
It works like this Meer. They have a record of every address in Britain and every licence. Their computer throws out addresses that aren't covered by a licence and those addresses are sent a series of progressively more threatening letters.
If you (like me) don't have a TV set you are expected to contact the licence people and tell them unless you want to continue getting the letters. But even if you do that, they don't believe you and they send someone around to confirm that you aren't lying.
So, just because I choose not to have a TV set, I have to fork out on a stamp to tell them that I don't have one and then I have to inconvenience myself by having an inspector come to my home and searching it to make sure I don't have a TV set.
Even if I did all that, I would only be spared the threatening letters for a period of three years.
Now there's such a thing in this country as being innocent until proven guilty. I should not have to prove that I am innocent just to satisfy a bunch of lazy bureaucrats. Their officers do not have a statutary right of entry and I, frankly, don't see why I should have to allow some stranger into my home so they can nose around.
This has become a matter of principle to me now.
Wyrd bið ful āræd.
"Coffee. The finest organic suspension ever devised. I beat the Borg with it."
- Capt. Kathryn Janeway
I've never heard of it before.
