[2rovers]

MPs lift threat of jail for licence fee dodgers: BBC stripped of powers to bring criminal prosecutions after agreement by three main parties

Might be a touchy subject for some people, but it's a subject that stirs opinion and blind rage, and this HAS to be a step in the right direction for complete eradication of the BBC's underhanded exploitation in creating revenue to justify a quality of life for its presenters that we can only dream off .

Sorry to post, but I am elated to hear this news

[RoverRevival]

is that a cancelled direct debit I see

[2rovers]

God damn bloody right, oh, oops, what dd!

[Red Icon]

What sort of world are we in when a criminal, because thats what they are, can't be prosecuted. It's no wonder this country is in a state.

[richard moss]

I hope that you will never use the BBC website, watch any BBC channel nor ever listen to any BBC radio station ever again. You pay for ITV programming through advertising so why should you expect to get the BBC for free?

If you ever had the misfortune to live overseas as I do, you would realise that the rest of the world envies the BBC - and rightly so.

[2rovers]

I have lived abroad , for several years , and there's no way anyone I met envied the bbc , in fact far from it , no one missed it because they had a life to be more concerned with rather than waste away in front of drivel and political propaganda .
If anything , the people I met were glad to see the back of the BBC , funny how people who do live abroad actually get to watch it for free and don't pay anything towards the license .....!

[richard moss]

Yes indeed - we get to watch it. Either the BBC programmes that have been sold to satellite TV providers to whom I have to pay a subscription because there is no terrestrial TV here (therefore it's not free) or via the BBC website which is paid for by advertisements (in the manner of ITV). So free? No, it's not, and a proportion of my satellite subscription goes to the BBC in exchange for that programming so I DO get to pay towards it, and gladly so.

I trust, though, that you won't be watching/listening to/reading any BBC material because to do so would by hypocritical an, of course, dishonest because you'd be accessing it without paying your "share" (a bit like "borrowing" a DVD from the local Virgin Megastore).

[Red Icon]

What you all is forgetting is even though the license fee goes to the BBC it is in fact a license allowing you watch a tv in your house irrespective of what channel you watch. So even if the BBC can't prosecute you they wil pass it on to someone who can.

[Scrumpy]

I can't remember the last time I watched ITV for more than 2 minutes, seeing snippets of audiences hysterically whooping/clapping every few seconds to banal 'entertainment' is enough to drive anyone to distraction, I know I am an ad man's nightmare! I suppose I get value from the BBC/licence fee, though if they ever let the World Snooker Championship go to Sky then I will be turning it off for good (not everyone worships football).

[richard moss]

Assuming that the original poster has his terminology right, if the BBC can no longer bring "criminal" prosecutions, then they should still be able to bring "civil" prosecutions. The nice thing about civil cases is that they require a LOWER standard of proof to gain a conviction - a term such as "reasonable probability" rather than "beyond reasonable doubt".