The Spectator's Notes

21 February 2009

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

Kind people keep warning me of the dangers of my plan to keep my television but refuse to pay my television licence unless the BBC sacks Jonathan Ross. ‘You will get a criminal record,’ they tell me. ‘The bailiffs will come and take your things. The licence fee will be collected against your will.’ So I have checked these and other matters with the authorities at TV Licensing, the body which will eventually, I presume, come after me. Most of the fears are misplaced. What happens is as follows. TV Licensing’s inquiry officers have no special powers. If they suspect you of having a television and no licence, they must first caution you under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. Only then can they proceed, as they do with 139,000 people a year, to take you to court. If you are convicted, you face a maximum fine of £1,000 and, although it is a criminal offence, no criminal record. The fine does not include the handing over of any money to the BBC: it goes only to the court. The unpaid licence fee is not a debt, and therefore it cannot be recovered by bailiffs. Once you have paid your fine, you can continue your defiance as before, and it will take TV Licensing somewhere between six months and a year to come after you again. It seems worth a try, and not too frightening. Being less well paid by the BBC than Ross, the inquiry officers are not allowed to ring you up and scream that they have ‘f***ed your granddaughter’, but must be polite at all times. What is worrying, though, is that the inquiry officers get more money the more people they catch. Yet another example of the dangers of the bonus culture.

‘Bishops back Christian in school religion row,’ said a headline this week. You might think that this was a statement of the obvious, and therefore not worth reporting. On reflection, though, I realised that it was an extremely unusual event, and therefore news indeed.

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Christopher Chantrill

February 19th, 2009 6:11pm Report this comment

"Was a woman?"

It seems that the rumours of Lady Thatcher's death have been greatly exaggerated among the luvvies.

darsan

February 20th, 2009 11:18am Report this comment

some hope is there for britain when bishops back christians in the country. secularism . freedom of religion, etc are ranged on the side of murderous fantics.

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