please empty your brain below

I fear the Great British Knit Off has already been commissioned!
I just loved Spring Watch.
Can't wait for the follow up show, Pendulum Watch !
No property porn?

All these poor people who only have a few hundred thousand pounds to spend on a house in the middle of the countryside.

Oh god, that is brilliant. How long must it have taken to work all that out.
Brilliant., especially the Washing Up from Mary Berry. All rather horribly prescient and reminds me of the Ingham clamp-down during the Falklands War.
Strangely similar to what we have at the moment and yet different and better, bring it on!
Funny but sadly prescient. Wake up people! You don’t know what you had ‘til it’s gone!
oops read the line Pat Sharp....as daytime drivel....

Oh, no mistake, it seems.
The Great British Washing Up

I would support this programme. We have loads of programmes on cooking (how hard can that be?). None on washing up yet that is what many of us do most in the kitchen. And we really need a programme to tell the hopeless people how to do washing up. I cannot believe how many people are clueless about washing up. For instance, the real basics:

- No point it putting dishes into soak if there is no water in the first place

- No point it putting all the stuff in the washing up bowl if the first thing the washer up has to do is remove them

I could continue with hundreds of other points.

Oh, and I have actually watched Pobol y Cwm and quite like it though I imagine it wouldn't exactly be must-see viewing after having seen it a couple of times.
"Approved News at Ten" has been up and running for some time now!

"Pobol y Cwm Except Wales" hahahahaha!

Sad times are ahead.
Brilliant!

Please send this to the letters page of the Radio Times.

Until recently, the DCMS had ignored the RT's readers' responses to the DCMS "Consultation" about the future of the BBC.

In fact, Whittingdale 'lied' when asked what had happened to them!
How about The Potter's Wheel instead of the blank screen at 8.30pm on BBC Educate? A bit of nostalgia instead.
You scare me sometimes.
And thumbs up to The Potter's Wheel. It's a pity that Out of Town was an ITV programme - that would be lovely for BBC Educate.
@PoP re washing up:

dishes left in teenagers' rooms don't wash themselves. (it seems the food has negative weight - the ulitimate slimming aid - since a full plate can be carried upstairs but an empty one cannot be carried down again).

You missed BBC Radio Tweet (formerly 5 Live) we can't afford presenters - or a studio - so we just recycle anything anyone can squeeze into 160 characters

and BBC Radio Chas - formely BBC Radio 4Extra); the radio equivalent of Dave: endlessly recycling out of date shows that were funny once but pall after the ninth repetition
(oh, we already have that)
I fear those future schedules would be too exciting / too commercial for Mr Whittingdale. You really need to make at least 100% duller / more tedious / cheap.
The answer is to switch to a properly thought out encryption / subscription system. The BBC would then have all the money it needed to produce quality programming, the courts wouldn't be permanently clogged up by the BBC prosecuting 18,000 people per year (mostly single mums, with some even being sent to jail), there would be no evasion and the BBC would be free of government control.

Public Service Broadcasting and BBC Radio would be safeguarded by ring fencing part of the BBC's subscription income, perhaps a fixed amount plus a percentage. Alternatively, a minimum 'PSB Fee' of say £2 - £3 per month could be charged for the card. Part of the PSB Fee could also fund other services, as is the case now with the licence fee.

Any fears that the nation would watch only non-BBC channels could be addressed by switching non-PSB programming on all channels from Free To Air to Free To View (i.e. soft encryption, a Reithian touch that would promote PSB programming and ensure that everyone had a card).

Unfortunately the BBC is addicted to the licence fee because its fat cats can't think outside The Box, and governments love it because they can always use it to threaten the BBC if it steps out of line...
Gerry,

I may be wrong but I thought that non-payment of licence fee was nowadays treated as a civil debt rather than a criminal offence. Maybe that was just the intention and it hasn't been enacted?

Of course, specifically claiming you haven't got a TV when you know you have would be criminal (probably fraud).
It'd be a sad day if the nation's public service broadcaster was available only through a subscription/encryption system.
@ Pedantic of Purley

Wrong, I'm afraid.

The elected House of Commons voted to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, but the BBC's chums voted it down in the non-elected House of Lords.

Wrong again about claiming you don't have a TV. You don't have to make any declaration, and mere possession of a TV doesn't require a licence. You need a licence only if you watch TV as it is broadcast.
@ DG: > It'd be a sad day if the nation's public service broadcaster was available only through a subscription/encryption system.

That's not what I'm proposing. BBC PSB programming would be Free to Air or Free to View. Only the dross would be chargeable.

So encryption/subscription is really quite a Reithian idea; it's the licence fee that's dumbing everything down because the BBC has to get vast audiences to justify it.
What was the 'Ingham clamp-down during the Falklands War'? I've Googled, but I can't find anything.
@Gerry

"You need a licence only if you watch TV as it is broadcast."

I think it's the case that possession of any equipment capable of receiving live broadcasts required a licence.

e.g. if you have a Freeview DVR connected to a projector and never watch anything live you still need a license for the DVR. Indeed the DVR is receiving (and recording) live broadcasts.

When you buy a DVR, I believe the shop is required to take your address for the licensing database.

Watching catch-up on iPlayer over the interwebs may be the only way to avoid needing a license.
If you record a TV programme as it is broadcast it's regarded as the same as watching it, so you do need a licence.

But you can have a TV used only for CCTV, playing games, watching blockbuster DVDs from the local store, watching programmes the licensed neighbours have recorded for you, and you won't need a licence. A licence is required only if you receive TV programmes (on any device) as they are broadcast.

The requirement for retailers to inform TV Licensing of purchases was dropped w.e.f. 25 June 2013.

Encryption/subscription would end all this nonsense and confusion as well as safeguarding the BBC's income. You don't end up getting a criminal conviction if you don't pay the gas bill, so why should the BBC be able to prosecute you for watching a competitor's service?
If the equipment is CAPABLE of receiving then a license is required. I used to work in an electronics shop in the 80s and had a side line in disabling the receiver circuit for those people who didn't want to have their details taken or buy a TV license and building 24 to 12V drop down regulators and smoothers for the portable sets. Mostly truckers, travellers and the people who lived in the high rises around the shopping centre. Not as easy now with the system-on-a-chip style of digital TV. The manager of the shop turned a blind eye to these activities as (1) it voided the warranty and (2) he'd get a sale. You don't get service like that from a chain retailer nowadays.
Before 11am: comments about the post
After 11am: comments about the comments

This often happens.
@ Uncle Audrey

Wrong ! All PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones would require a TV Licence if that were the case ! You won't find any official evidence to support your assertion.

Here's the official statement.
If strictly come dancing is on their why not doctor who (or in 2018 doctor who?????)
"Before 11am: comments about the post
After 11am: comments about the comments

This often happens."

In this case, though, one of the comments about comments was yours, but.
FFS that was an observation, not a moan.

(this is a moan)
@ Gerry, perhaps I wasn't clear enough. All equipment capable of receiving a live television broadcast by wireless. I'm talking late 80s here - VCRs needed a license, TVs needed a license, computer monitors did not because they didn't have an RF receiver module installed. It was the RF receiver module that had to be deinstalled in order to allow people to get away with not needing a license. It was the RF receiving circuit that was the thing that was licensed. Thankfully the fact that the factory had to physically install different modules to make the thing work in different countries meant that it was fairly easy to remove - nowadays the same circuit can tune into all common broadcast frequencies and signal formats, so it's often built in to circuits vital for other functions of the TV / PVR. If the TV detector van came round, you had to demonstrate that your apparatus was incapable of receiving the broadcast signal - just saying "I don't use that bit" wouldn't cut any ice with the TV detector van man. I had them turn up on our university campus on a regular basis.

The wording was amended to cover use in the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004, where television receiver was defined as "any apparatus installed or used for the purpose of receiving (whether by means of wireless telegraphy or otherwise) any television programme service, whether or not it is installed or used for any other purpose".

A computer nowadays does not come with a receiving module for television programmes sent by wireless telegraphy, though some AV series macs once upon a time had them built in and thus required a TV license, as does, for example, a Hauppage card - if you sold one of those you were supposed to fill in the TV equipment sales form until 2013. All PCs Laptops, tablets smartphones etc do require a TV license if you USE them to receive a television programme service (i.e. live broadcast).

Why are you being such a dick?
I remember the day when you didn't moan about what people commented about on your blog, DG.

You have a super, intelligent, engaging blog which is blessed with people that clearly repeatedly like to come back and regularly comment.

So what if the comments stray off topic, or are in reply about some of the comments themselves?

This is what I would call a discussion, a conversation! And it's so sad that in recent months you've become so grumpy that you do moan about what people comment about, rather than be happy with the fact that people feel inclined to comment. Not many blogs nowadays have such a loyal following and readership.
Oh here we go again...comment about the comments being more about the comments...that not a moan, rather a observational comment.
"FFS that was an observation, not a moan.

(this is a moan)"

To be fair, my comment was also an observation, not a criticism. I simply saw it as odd that you jumped in with all of those chatting about encryption, and then observed that people were commenting on comments, when you'd been part of the fray, as it were.
Comments about comments are one thing, but it's sad to see the comments descending to one commenter being rude to another. Pull yourselves together folks!
I love the 'twat under the hammer' theme










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