The Spectator's Notes

8 August 2009

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

President Obama’s popularity is declining because of his policy on healthcare. His own Democrats in Congress are now worried about his reforms. It is a little bit like the poll tax. The poll tax was introduced because the governing party’s core supporters were angry about domestic rates. What was not understood was that the losers by the reform would be much angrier than the gainers would be pleased. In health, the Democrats’ core supporters resent the difficulty and expense of health insurance. But most Americans tell polls they are happy with the health insurance provided by their employers. To provide the universal service he seeks, President Obama will have to reduce the existing benefits to millions, or incur utterly astronomical costs. It begins to look like political suicide.

Early in July, I wrote to TV Licensing to explain that I would not be renewing my television licence, though I would continue to watch television, until the BBC sacked Jonathan Ross, to whom it pays £6 million a year. I got a quick reply, which said that the TV licence is ‘a legal permission’ and ‘not a payment for service from broadcasters’, which is another way of saying that paying the money gives you no power whatever. TV Licensing went on to explain that ‘We have no control over the quality or broadcasts of television programmes’, and to suggest that I write to the Correspondence Manager in Glasgow if I have ‘complaints of this nature’. I don’t think I shall bother, but will simply wait and see what happens next, now that my fee payment is overdue. The authority has just reported that the number of people it has caught evading in the past six months has risen to 214,000 people. I shall let you know whether this has gone up to 214,001 when this column returns in September.

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ian skidmore

August 11th, 2009 10:55am Report this comment

Just hope that the God of whom you speak so highly does not inflict moor neurone disease or any of the other horrors which lead people to wish to end their lives prematurely. Where is the evidence that anyone has used that Swiss option toimherit money?

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