[daniel_williams]

B121 - Television License Equality Bill 2009, Socialist

Television Licence Equality Bill 2009

An act making the television license more affordable to everyone, tackling the relative poverty within the entertainment industry.

BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1. Making the television licence more affordable to the less well off.
(1) Households earning less then £10,000 per annum will not be required to pay for a television licence.
(2) Households earning between £10,001 and £20,000 will receive a 50% discount on the television licence.
(3) Households earning £20,001+ will pay the full television licence.

2. Television Licences for students.
(1) All students will receive a 50% discount on the television licence if the house/halls is populated by solely by students.

3. Funding
(1) The changes in sections 1 and 2 will be funded by cuts to the salaries of the BBC and by slightly inflating the cost of the television licence.

4. Short title, Commencement and Extent
(1) This act many be cited as the Television Licensing Act, 2009
(2) This act shall come into force exactly twelve months after the date it is passed.
(3) This act applies to England, Scotland and Wales.

[Nothos]

Hear, hear!

[Liquidus Zeromus]

Seems ok to me.

[Metrobeans]

I can understand cutting the prices of essential services, but is television really a necessity? Do we really need to subsidise it? I think not.

EDIT: I also object to you raising the price of the license for the majority so that students and poorer people pay less and I'd question whether the government has the authority to demand salary cuts for BBC staff and for people contracted to work for the Corporation.

[Nynyflower]

(Original post by Metrobeans)
I can understand cutting the prices of essential services, but is television really a necessity? Do we really need to subsidise it? I think not.

Well you get a lot of hassle if you don't pay it even if you don't have a TV! Plus now you can stream live TV online it may be the case that you need a TV license if you own a computer (speculation but meh)

[Kyalimers]

The TV license costs enough as it is without slightly having to inflate it.

Also, whilst some BBC staff may duly require pay cuts, others don't go around earning 3 million pounds a year. A pay cut for them is not exactly what you socialists call 'equal'.

[Metrobeans]

(Original post by Nynyflower)
Well you get a lot of hassle if you don't pay it even if you don't have a TV! Plus now you can stream live TV online it may be the case that you need a TV license if you own a computer (speculation but meh)

Computers are bit of a grey area but you don't need a TV license to own a computer (unless it has a tv card/tuner - except if you have a laptop running on battery).

[SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian]

I'm against the existence of the BBC entirely anyway, but I think that as long as it exists, it should be as externally managed as possible. Bills like this increased central government control over it (but legislating a reduction in wages, etc) and I don't think it's an approach we should be taking.

[DayneD89]

I cannot consider television a neccessity. thus I cannot support this bill as It is.

[Grape190190]

(Original post by daniel_williams)

1. Making the television licence more affordable to the less well off.
(1) Households earning less then £10,000 per annum will not be required to pay for a television licence.

[...]

2. Television Licences for students.
(1) All students will receive a 50% discount on the television licence if the house/halls is populated by solely by students.

(Yeah, I totally read this bill while it was in the sub-forum. )

Not many students are earning anyway, so this is pretty redundant.

And you're hardly gonna be happy if you're a student living in a flat of 12 people, two of whom earn £5K a year from part-time jobs, if you consequently have to pay 50% of the TV license.

[SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian]

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/poll...s&pollid=17013

If you voted "no" there, you are hence-forth barred from using the defence "It's not essential". If you do think it's essential, fair enough. If not, you can't at once both disagree with this bill on the basis that it's not neccessary, yet support the continued existence of an entirely government support TV station. All the arguments expressed there for the BBC being involuntarily thrust upon anyone who desired to watch any TV (such as unbiased and local news reporting, public broadcasting etc) can only justify the continued exitence of said license fee if you think such things are neccessary. If not, stop using the line "It's neccessary" here.

Athanku.

[DayneD89]

why should BBC workers and people who earn more be forced to pay for the entertainment of thos who earn less?

[DayneD89]

(Original post by DanGrover)
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/poll...s&pollid=17013

If you voted "no" there, you are hence-forth barred from using the defence "It's not essential". If you do think it's essential, fair enough. If not, you can't at once both disagree with this bill on the basis that it's not neccessary, yet support the continued existence of an entirely government support TV station. All the arguments expressed there for the BBC being involuntarily thrust upon anyone who desired to watch any TV (such as unbiased and local news reporting, public broadcasting etc) can only justify the continued exitence of said license fee if you think such things are neccessary. If not, stop using the line "It's neccessary" here.

Athanku.

I disagree. I would like to see the BBC as seperate as possible from the government, nearly as far as the judiciary is. But I do support its existance. I dont think TV is an essential service but I think the BBC should exist for the majority of the population who do choose to pay for a licence to watch T.V.

[Grape190190]

P.S. Wage cuts for public sector workers? Not cool.

[SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian]

(Original post by DayneD89)
I disagree. I would like to see the BBC as seperate as possible from the government, nearly as far as the judiciary is. But I do support its existance. I dont think TV is an essential service but I think the BBC should exist for the majority of the population who do choose to pay for a licence to watch T.V.

I don't understand how this view expressed here can be jointly held with "I don't want to make it easier for the poor to access said services." If you think that there's some national interest that warrants the government forcing people to pay for a service they may never use, how can you not want to increase access to this service as much as possible?

[Grape190190]

(Original post by DanGrover)
I don't understand how this view expressed here can be jointly held with "I don't want to make it easier for the poor to access said services." If you think that there's some national interest that warrants the government forcing people to pay for a service they may never use, how can you not want to increase access to this service as much as possible?

Because the TV license isn't - in theory - about funding the BBC. Yes, that's how the money's used, but actually, the justification for it is that all channels broadcast on publicly owned airwaves. In effect, TV-owners are paying the government for use of its airwaves.

[SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian]

(Original post by Grape190190)
Because the TV license isn't - in theory - about funding the BBC. Yes, that's how the money's used, but actually, the justification for it is that all channels broadcast on publicly owned airwaves. In effect, TV-owners are paying the government for use of its airwaves.

Well that can't be right, because I still need a TV license if I want to watch BBC streaming live on their website on my personally-owned computer using data I receive via my Virgin-owned fibre optic cable.

[Gremlins]

(Original post by Metrobeans)
Computers are bit of a grey area but you don't need a TV license to own a computer (unless it has a tv card/tuner - except if you have a laptop running on battery).

Oh yeah, Computers. I mean, it's not like they don't cost hundreds of pounds. There's still a fair few people, generally amongst the poor and the elderly, who don't have a computer. Not that Labour cares about them Now, if you wanted to give every household in the country a computer...

I really cannot stand the people who say 'Oh XYZ commodity that I enjoy and use very regularly isn't a necessity at all you can't have it nah-nah-nah'. Leisure time is a necessity. Well we on the Left have always believed it is, anyway. What's one of the most common leisure activities? Watching TV. Do you see the connection here?

[davireland]

No, Im not supporting this, Geetar produced a perfectly decent bill on this and that would be the idea i would support, the BBC should be totally privatised.

[DayneD89]

gremlins, there are many other forms of entertainment, many of them free. TV is NOT a necessity. I rarely watch TV but it hasn't done me any harm.