Comment on Anon has a typical everyday average British morning

AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  To watch tv in UK you need a tv licence

  This was done as sort of a tax to fund public television without taxing people who don’t use it

  The person then concludes that they should have voted for the nazis because liberals bad

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  • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I mean you do in the US as well, but it’s called “A Netflix/Hulu/Disney Plus membership”

    And it only funds one channel instead of dozens of TV, radio, web, apps, weather and news channels.

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    • Obi@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Also publicly funded TV tends to be way better. They have somewhat more accountability so especially news, politics etc tends to be much better. For leisure programs that varies a bit more by country, but obviously the BBC has produced a lot of great stuff.

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      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Accountability to the government, you mean?

        BBC news on anything Armenian just stink.

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    • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      We have those, too. You can choose not to pay for them.

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      • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Truly, the freest country in the world.

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  • RoseTintedGlasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They’re making fun of how Brexit was pushed on a platform of getting rid of overstrict EU regulations and bureaucracy (as well as a lot of overt racism) but it turned out a load of it was just homegrown British bureaucracy that had nothing to do with the EU but UKIP voters kept complaining that anything they didn’t like about Britain was the fault of the EU anyway

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  • lessthanluigi@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I can’t believe that is a real thing.

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    • cynar@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It did well for a long time. The BBC produces a lot of excellent programmes. It was also unafraid of holding the government’s feet to the fire.

      Unfortunately, the Tories successfully gutted it about a decade back. It still produces excellent programmes, but is neutered politically.

      As for the licence fee. It is effectively an extra tax. However, if you don’t watch TV, you don’t have to have a licence. It’s not perfect, but better than just a flat tax. It also helped keep them semi independent of the government.

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    • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Funding services by taxing people who use them? Yep, it’s a thing.

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