UK politics thread – meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Tuxedo Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
"Pick a fight with DAVID TENNANT" doesn't exactly seem like a winning strategy...

Well, it worked for David Camero-- er, I mean, "Harold Saxon"....
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Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Still impressive that a political figure who's never been the head of state can quit his party, run as an independent, and still poll second behind the party he left. Both for him and for the system, really. Imagine that happening in the US literally ever.
 

Anonymous X

Well-known member
Citizen
LOL, Frogface Farage is going in a strop and won’t appear on BBC television because they didn’t give him preferential enough treatment for his tastes. Someone who owes his entire career to the BBC’s politics department giving his fringe party more coverage than by rights they ever deserved.
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Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Unfortunately, one thing I do know about UK politics is that the BBC license fee is just about one of the most universally hated policies in the entire country. I can't think of a better way for a candidate to get support than to announce that you plan to get rid of it.
 

Anonymous X

Well-known member
Citizen
Unfortunately, one thing I do know about UK politics is that the BBC license fee is just about one of the most universally hated policies in the entire country.
I’ve watched American broadcast television. The licence fee is better than the alternative.

Do remember that the commercial media absolutely guns for the BBC constantly due to its public broadcaster status. And the cuts to the BBC over the last 14 years have sapped its popularity – unfortunately it doesn’t produce anywhere the quality or quantity of programming as they did just a decade ago. (Unfortunately I’m doubtful of the incoming government improving matters.)
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
I’ve watched American broadcast television. The licence fee is better than the alternative.

Do remember that the commercial media absolutely guns for the BBC constantly due to its public broadcaster status. And the cuts to the BBC over the last 14 years have sapped its popularity – unfortunately it doesn’t produce anywhere the quality or quantity of programming as they did just a decade ago. (Unfortunately I’m doubtful of the incoming government improving matters.)
Oh, sure, but I don't understand why they can't just fund it from taxes like a proper public service. I've heard stories of officials going door to door and shaking people down like mobsters, poking around in their houses trying to find a TV or something they can claim looks enough like one to qualify.
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
And what part of that statement DOESN'T sound like the tax man?

Long and short: the TV license fee is, in fact, a tax. It's just a tax you can opt out of if you're good at hiding shit, or don't watch the TV.
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
It's really not. A tax would be paid by everyone, automatically. If they only demand money from people who are using the service, that's called a fee. I'm not fond of governments just charging fees for services rendered, especially if it's that hard to even tell who is and isn't actually using them. If people wanted to be charged to use something, that's what private companies are for.
 

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
Under that definition, you are right. But under that definition a property tax isn't a tax, it's a fee(you are paying the government to recognize and enforce your exclusive use of a piece of land, essentially), same would go for sales taxes, import duties, road tolls, etc.
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
What's the difference between a fee and a tax?

The person who issues it. That's it. Every tax you have ever paid is a simply a routine fee you pay to the government. Collection is sometimes convoluted, but still just a fee. And considering how effective most forms of bureaucracy are with money: junk fees.
 

Anonymous X

Well-known member
Citizen
Oh, sure, but I don't understand why they can't just fund it from taxes like a proper public service. I've heard stories of officials going door to door and shaking people down like mobsters, poking around in their houses trying to find a TV or something they can claim looks enough like one to qualify.
Oh, I absolutely support funding it from general taxation. As long as it is kept fully independent, both officially and in practice. No big party seems to want to promote that policy, though.

The door to door inspection thing isn’t something that happens these days (at least bot like that), and they don’t have by law the power to break in and search a household.
 

Anonymous X

Well-known member
Citizen
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BBC exit poll. Labour underperforming compared to opinion polls, Tories getting 3-figures, the Fash actually getting ******* seats, the SNP losing most of their MPs.
 

Anonymous X

Well-known member
Citizen
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Results with 2 seats to go. Labour won, the Tories were crushed (but not near-extinct, as some polling estimated), the SNP lost most of their seats, the Greens got more than one seat for the first time, and the LibDems got the highest Liberal seat count since 1923. Unfortunately, the far-right gained sitting MPs for the first time in decades, and even though there is just four of them, they’ll get plenty of media airtime.

FWIW, I voted LibDem. They weren’t going to, and didn’t, win where I live. But I find Labour utterly repellent, and the LibDems’ policy platform was far more progressive. My vote at least when towards boosting the LD popular vote and counted towards their short money allocation.
 


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