[Manoeuvering in a narrow channel!!!]

On 27/01/2022 at 16:40, blackrose said:

 

I disagree. I thought it was a really interesting factual programme and wasn't dumbed down. I also don't agree with your statement that the licence fee should be scrapped. It should be modified so that people who can afford it pay more and people on low incomes pay less rather than a flat fee, but I think public service broadcasting free from commercial advertising is something we need to protect. The BBC make world class TV and radio programmes. 

 

 

Bow thrusters don't help in strong winds or when a vessel is moving at any speed.

The license fee should definitely be scrapped.  Australia and New Zealand for example which followed the BBC model (ABC and NZBC respectively) scrapped TV license fees decades ago.   The licenses may have made sense in the early days of TV when only a relatively few, relatively wealthy people owed television sets.  Having the few pay for a service the majority had no access to had some logic.  But once nearly everyone owned a TV the logic was gone and the fees became an anachronism.   Fees are inefficient to collect and enforce and are regressive (at a fixed annual fee the costs proportionately fall more heavily on those of lower incomes)  so it became much preferred to collect the costs of public broadcasting from general taxation.  There are no additional collection and enforcement costs this way and those who can afford to pay more do so through the higher taxes they pay.