What does it mean to be British? It may not be your first thought, but it’s British to buy a TV licence. No other country in the world has our system of paying for a TV service – the BBC. Do you believe me? Well you shouldn’t, because quite a few countries fund broadcasters through a licence fee; a couple (Greece and Portugal) do it combined with the electricity bill, I assume because otherwise nobody would pay.
I bought a lease on a small flat in Holborn in 1978 and bought a TV (I remember it took a year before I bought a ‘fridge.) It was expensive, the TV licence – £12 for monochrome, as black and white was called. I bought my last licence in 2002 (above) and it cost £112. Without wanting to get bogged down in detail this seems a modest increase, especially as it was for Colour.
But let’s work out in the philosophy gym. Why should I buy a licence if I own a TV but do not watch the BBC? Why shouldn’t I have to buy a licence if I don’t own a TV but watch the BBC on a computer on catch-up? Should the BBC be self-funding by selling its programmes overseas and, maybe, accepting adverts? Is the BBC, in reality, a government department that should be centrally funded like the NHS? Oh no, you exclaim, the BBC is full of lefties. Well another government department, the MoD, is full of righties. Does it make sense to slice and dice how money is raised for something as central to the country as the BBC? Does the licence fee hark back to a time when TV was a luxury and so fair to be paid for by those who could afford it? Car owners are still taxed in this way.
Lots of questions. Here are some answers. First, the licence fee raise £3.7 billion. That’s really the end of the discussion. Abolishing the licence fee, logical as this seems in an age where people buy TVs to watch subscription channels, is just too much for the voters (tax payers) to swallow. This is especially the case since the electorate were bribed with “free” licences for those over the age of 75. It isn’t free because the government kicks back about £600 million to the BBC to compensate them for this loss of income. So, if you are a UK tax payer under the age of 75 you not only pay your own licence fee but subsidise someone’s (I hope your own) granny.
Now people like me who watch catch-up on BBC iPlayer are going to have to pay the licence fee; I think this is fair. How many extra licence payers will this generate? I have no idea but I think it will be fair if the fee is reduced for everyone to reflect this windfall increase in the number of subscribers. This is not something that I have heard mentioned.
The whole system of taxation in the UK is a morass from which I don’t think we can extract ourselves. A friend has recently moved from Knightsbridge to the Czech Republic where there is a flat 15% rate of income tax. I have argued here that lower taxes generate more revenue. Interestingly, the UK with low Corporation Tax (not as low as Ireland) gains a lot of inward investment from international companies wanting a gateway to Europe. Sorry to be a bore, but these companies will have to relocate, like Pavel, to the Czech Republic or similar if the UK leaves the EU.
ONE MIGHT ARGUE THAT THINKING ‘OUTSIDE THE BOX’ WOULD MEAN CONTEMPLATING LEAVING THE EU. IF CORPORATION TAX WERE LOWERED TO ALLOW COMPANIES TO REMAIN IN THE UK, WHAT MIGHT BE THE BENEFITS AND THE COSTS OF THAT? AND SO IT GOES.
FOR ME, THE ISSUE IS ONE OF BOTH DEMOCRACY AND SOVEREIGNTY. NEITHER ARE CURRENTLY NEGOTIABLE.
WERE THE EU A CORPORATION, IT MIGHT WELL BE BUST. WERE I INSIDE THAT CORPORATION, UNLESS THERE WAS A CHANGE OF MANAGEMENT, THE ONLY REALISTIC OPTION WOULD BE TO LEAVE.
I HAVE READ NOTHING ABOUT HOW IN THRALL THE EU IS TO GERMANY, OR ABOUT GERMAN FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS RUSSIA. IT MAY BE A RED HERRING, BUT IT’S AN INTERESTING ONE.