An Update On Those Marvellous Charles Dickens Dramas

“Drama to get your pulse racing” they call it at the BBC.

But we imagine watching the BBC’s ‘wonderful dramas’ won’t quite quicken the pulse as much as being sent to prison for the heinous offence of not having a TV licence:

"A CHRONICALLY ill grandmother from west Belfast was last night spending her first night in Hydebank Prison after she was arrested for non-payment of fines for not having a TV licence. 

"Anne Smith (59), who has serious mobility issues and is awaiting a double-hip replacement, was ordered to present herself to police by 5pm yesterday so she could begin a six-day sentence behind bars.
The mother-of-four, who has 12 grandchildren, told The Irish News yesterday that she was "terrified" at the prospect of being imprisoned. 

"Police called at the Poleglass woman's home on Friday with a bench warrant for her arrest, which had been issued because of unpaid fines for not having a TV licence. 

"Ms Smith, who suffers from the debilitating lung condition COPD, as well as osteoporosis, said she was given until Monday to try and sort the matter. 

"However, despite engaging a solicitor and contacting the court to pay the fine, which amounts to just over £1,100, she was prevented from settling the outstanding debt because a bench warrant had already been issued. 

"Police returned to her address on Tuesday to arrest her however, as some of her young grandchildren were present, police instead told her to present herself to Musgrave Police Station by 5pm yesterday to be taken to Hydebank to begin her detention."

Apparently, the BBC doesn't like old women with lung and hip problems who have care responsibilities and can't leave the house:

"I think it is utterly ridiculous that they would arrest a woman over a TV licence. I wish I had just paid the fines. 

"I broke my hip and was unable to get out of the house for a whole year. In hindsight, I should have had a licence but because of my health, and I had to help my sister through cancer, I didn't get to do it."

And the crucial quote, which the newspaper does not forget to include:

She added: "I would say to other people, especially those with young children to go and make arrangements to get a TV licence if this is the lengths to go to. I never dreamed they would come and arrest me and put me away."

For the purpose of emphasis, let’s just run through what this poor woman will have experienced:

• Worry and distress over threatening and bullying letters from a ruthless and avaricious private sector enforcer, telling her that she has to pay money she doesn’t have or else.  


• A visit from a thug who extracted the money from her under duress (she probably had to beg of a friend or relative).  


• Then, despite paying the protection money, there is a court summons.  


• Humiliation in court, a fine she can’t pay, then her name in the local papers and a de facto criminal record.  


• More worry because she can’t pay the fine.  


• More visits, this time from court-appointed thugs calling themselves court enforcement officers.  


• More threatening letters, this time from the criminal “justice” system.  


• Another summons, this time for the offence of non-payment of a criminal fine.  


• Humiliation in court and imprisonment.  


• The shock experienced by a law-abiding individual of being imprisoned, especially over such a trivial matter.  


• A search of her body and belongings by private sector court custody officers.  


• Being locked inside a tiny concrete cell, awaiting transportation to prison: claustrophobia, humiliation.  


• Being locked in a cubicle inside an escort van: claustrophobia, humiliation. This woman will have been terrified.  


• Being led into the prison reception area, being strip-searched (she will have had to remove all her clothes in front of prison officers), being asked various intrusive questions about her health and personal circumstances, then being led to a reception wing and a cell shared with another inmate, containing a wash basin and a toilet – indignity, humiliation.  


• Then at some point the next day being moved on to a general population wing. Having to live in a cell for 23 hours-a-day.  


• Being locked up with actual criminals, some of them violent and dangerous. Even in women's prisons, there are some nasty, dangerous people.

One has to ask: Is locking people in concrete boxes a price worth paying for ‘high-quality dramas’?  Is saving Eastenders more important than the liberty and dignity of human beings?  Will our civilisation collapse if the BBC disappears?  We needn’t resort to the Current Year argument, but we have to observe that this is the 21^st. century, not the Middle Ages.  We should not be serfs anymore, but it seems the BBC disagrees.  The TV licence imposition is a New Serfdom.

The BBC’s stooges will say this unfortunate woman was imprisoned for not paying the fine rather than for not having a licence, but she would not have been fined were it not for the stupid TV licence and the BBC.  David Attenborough nature documentaries of whatever quality don’t quite justify locking people up for what, under the best of circumstances, should be entirely a civil matter. 

The truth is that the BBC has already fulfilled whatever public mission it once had and has now become an abusive, self-serving institution. It needs to be closed down, David Attenborough can go make his documentaries for the private sector, and we can each choose whether we want to pay for them.