An elderly relative who lived with us died recently. I am his executor and have been informing various organisations of his demise. One of these is the TV Licensing Authority. Initially I just went onto the website to buy myself a licence, but this seemed to want to backdate my application into the distant past.
I decided to take my chances of using the telephone. I just loathe calling about this sort of thing as I usually have to spend far longer than I would by using a website or sending an email or a letter. However I was able to give the current licence number to a helpful chap who said that I will not need to buy a licence until October when the current one runs out. This current one was valid for 3 years, so if my elderly relation had delayed dying until October I might have got a free licence until late in 2013.
Obviously this is nice for me, but it seems a bit unfair to millions of other licence holders. Frankly, the whole idea of giving old people free stuff is generally just a little bribe to keep them onside, as the stuff is not actually free, but just paid for by all the people who don't get the bribe (younger licence payers in this case).
The TV Licence is just a regressive hypothecated tax. I would happily pay the same sum to access the BBC's output but the compulsory nature of the charge just leads to the usually thuggery and bullying. If you don't believe me, take a look at this site.
