Entered on 20 November 2002 at 8:40 a.m..
Caught by the TV License Man
That's right, last night in a very Becca like experience, my house was busted by the TV License Man. For those of you unfamiliar with British entertainment law, I'll explain. In the UK you must purchase a TV license to own a TV. It costs about �37 ($60) for a black & white set and �112 ($180) for a color television. This money goes to pay for the BBC TV service which is commercial free. However, you do not have a choice not to watch the BBC and therefore not to pay the tax. I call it a tax, because in reality that is what it is, a tax. I don't understand why they don't just tag it on to the end of everyone's income tax. Just think of how much money they would save on the hundreds of people they have to employ to collect the license fee.
So anyway the actuall busting happened when I was tucked away in my room listening to the radio and working on an article for Entropy. The "boys" answered the door, with the TV blaring... The funny thing is that had I answered the door, I would have answered that "yes we did have a license," because we all decided to buy one on Saturday. Our true Brit, Karl, said he was going to buy it online and let us know how much we owed him later. Unfortunately Karl procrastinated and hadn't quite gotten around to paying for the license. He'd come close though even going up to the post office, filling in the form and handing over his credit card. Unfortunately the Cranfield post office is not equipped to handle anything but cash.
Needless to say I knew nothing about this nor that we'd been busted until I came down the stairs to cook dinner and saw Allen and Karl talking to someone outside with the door wide open. Now it was cold outside, about 40 degrees, so I suggested that they invite their "friend" in. Only when I saw the clipboard did cogs begin to turn in my head. But no matter, I continued on into the kitchen and let the "boys" handle whatever it was. Later they told me they had been busted, but that they only received a warning since they agreed to buy the license on the spot. Which was great, because the guy took a credit card (this part makes me laugh).
I'm curious to see how many others were caught last night. I'm even more curious to see how he gets on with some of the students whose English is a little below par.