This week the BBC sends me a threatening letter, telling me I am going to have to pay for my once-free TV Licence next year. Today, another letter from the BBC enclosing a) my free licence up to 31st May 2020, and b) more threats. If they are so hard-up, hasn’t occured them that duplicates cost money in postage. Do as we do – stick two letters in one envelope and save money!
Bet the BBC bean counters are wishing they had kept their mouths shut. Their pathetic attempt to increase the massive BBC pot used to pay over-indulged presenters etc. has backfired. Age UK’s Petition against losing free licenses for over-75s has already gathered over 600,000 signatures https://www.ageuk.org.uk/our-impact/campaigning/save-free-tv-for-older-people/
A letter in The Telegraph says the writer is saving up all is copper coins, and when the debt collectors arrive he will pay with this. Ha! The irony is, if OAPs don’t pay and are sent to jail, they’ll get ‘free’ TV ! Anyone who dismisses OAPs soon realises we may be decrepit, but our brains are still razor-sharp – AND we don’t like being overcharged. Especially by the BBC, who recently has come off the impartial fence upon which it is supposed to sit, to become very self-indulgent.
I worked for UPI – an America press agency supplying news all around the world. It was fun working at major events, even though this usually meant 17 hour days. Occasions such as the Winter Olympics we’d all start work at 4 am, high up on the freezing mountainside, to get THE story. Returning to base when sun turned snow to slush, we go into the bars and there were the BBC contingent who’d just got out of bed.
The BBC journalists would ask “what happened?” (so they could file their story). They got un-PC replies from all. But every time there was a big international event, we would turn up with a team of a dozen to file stories for clients around the world; the BBC would roll into town with a massive caravan of up to 300 people all falling over each other.
Presenters are treated like Prima Donnas, and I gather Gary Linekar gets nearly £2 million a year. Then they are allowed to negotiate commercial endorsement packages that gain them more millions I would suggest the BBC tell these over-paid ‘celebs’ to take a pay cut, then they won’t have to milk pensioners. Most of whom will have paid their fee for 30 – 50 years, deserve our free licence as a loyalty bonus.