Do you disagree with the way in which TV Licence fees are collected? I certainly do, it is my opinion that I should be able to watch ITV, C4 and other TV stations that are non BBC without fear of prosecution.

Did you know that the legislation states that the TV you use to receive broadcasts, the legislation that the TV licencing uses is the Telecommunications Act 2003 and under section 363, it states: -

363 Licence required for use of TV receiver
(1) A television receiver must not be installed or used unless the installation and use of the receiver is authorised by a licence under this Part.
(2) A person who installs or uses a television receiver in contravention of subsection (1) is guilty of an offence.
(3) A person with a television receiver in his possession or under his control who—
   (a) intends to install or use it in contravention of subsection (1), or
   (b)knows, or has reasonable grounds for believing, that another person intends to install or use it in contravention of that subsection, is guilty of an offence.(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

This basically means that the BBC has the monopoly on if you can use your TV set or not, if you want to use your TV for watching DVD's or Using catchup tv services or for a games console, you don't need to have a licence.

The fact that you can not use your TV set to receive other TV channels unless you have a licence and we know that all the licence fees go to the BBC, what gives the BBC the right to bar a person from recieving NON-BBC television programs?

The modern TV has the ability to with use of the CI+ (Common Interface) a socket on tv's to accept a decoder. The use of a decoder to decode BBC TV programs would effectively render the above legislation obsolete and allow the user of the TV set to use their TV to recieve other TV Channels.

If the BBC were to change to this method, it would mean that they could sell access in a variety of ways such as by program, per day, week, month, quarter and annual access. This would be more fair to people who watch little TV like one or two programmes a week.

The BBC's royal charter comes to an end in 2016, it has already been partly debated in government the issue of converting to an alternative method of collecting revenue for the BBC, the BBC wouldn't survive by sponsorship alone and they don't want to rely on advertising, so this limits the way in which the BBC collects revenue.

The petition below is an attempt to get the government to debate the change to an alternative revenue collection scheme and to remove the monopoly the BBC has over the TV broardcasters.  

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46241

The diagram says it all, the top 1% of the diagram on the left breaks down in to the diagram on the right.

I don't think that it needs any more saying other than that the government and media have been untruthful about the real facts.

Fancy some seriously good music to listen to over the Christmas Holidays and beyond?  Not one, not two but THREE fabulous albums, created in support of the daily work of Keith Ordinary Guy (Keith Lindsay-Cameron), who writes a letter every day to David Cameron and has yet to receive the courtesy of a personal reply from the ignorant jumped up peasant.

Downloads are available from these links. Please download freely, share with friends and family, and ENJOY. (Copy and paste links into your browser):

"A Letter A Day" - Free Download Triple Album

Booklet & Sleeve Notes
http://www.mediafire.com/?63ougsqqpma5nba

Album 1 - Hear No Evil
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ar3r7ekkddhkp6u

Album 2 - See No Evil
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?8l9q8bgsu0yftv8

Album 3 - Speak No Evil
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?bqf4x8h2b4jda7y

Album Covers
http://www.mediafire.com/?2apwviz73zh4a1o 

The original video was avaialble on YouTube until it was pulled by Youtube under the orders of Chris Grayling who objected to it being public.

This is just an indication on how far the government wants to go to hold people back and deny their basic rights to information. 

Worldwide Protests 8th December 2012

More information on #OpBigBrother / #indect / #OpTrapwire http://pastebin.com/vAfx3hcY

An interesting hour and a half long video telling the story of the birth and history of the hacktivist group "Anonymous."  Well worth watching for those who wish to understand the group's actions to date.

Article From The Daily Record By John Ferguson
via The Social Welfare Union

More than HALF of people stripped of disability benefits after being ruled “fit for work” by Atos were left unemployed and without income, according to a Government study.

The Department for Work and Pensions, who hired the French IT firm to help them slash the benefits bill, have admitted finding out in a survey that 55 per cent of people who lost benefits in the crackdown had failed to find work.

Only 15 per cent were in jobs, with 30 per cent on other benefits.

The DWP claimed people left high and dry were given “tailored support” to find jobs.

But the extent of the hardship suffered by the Atos victims in the study will only add to the growing public fury about the firm and their methods.

Atos have assessed patients with terminal illnesses as “fit for work”. And thousands of victims of genuine, chronic conditions have complained of being humiliated by the company’s tests.

So far, Citizens Advice Scotland have received a shocking 24,000 complaints about Atos, who rake in £110million a year from the taxpayer for their controversial work.

The extent of unemployment among people denied benefits after Atos assessments was revealed by the DWP after a Freedom of Information request.

Investigators from the department spoke to 1100 claimants deemed fit for work and found that 55 per cent had no jobs or benefits.

Thirty per cent were getting jobseekers’ allowance or other benefits and just 15 per cent were in employment.

A later, follow-up survey of 590 of the claimants revealed that 43 per cent were still jobless and without income. Twenty-eight per cent were receiving benefits and 29 per cent were in work.

The snapshot surveys were taken between April and June 2009 and included in a report compiled for the DWP in 2011.

The figures were released to a member of the public under Freedom of Information law on September 10 this year.

The [Daily] Record has been telling the stories of Scots who have fallen foul of Atos – and of former staff who have seen from the inside how the company operate.

Former Atos nurse Joyce Drummond told [the Daily Record] how bosses forced her to “trick” disabled people out of their benefits.

Joyce’s medical training meant she knew claimants were unfit to work, but she was told to mark people as fit if they could write – or if they showed up for their interviews properly dressed.

Labour MP Michael Meacher has launched a campaign against Atos after one of his constituents who had been ruled fit for work died of a seizure.

He said lifelong epilepsy sufferer Colin Traynor’s health deteriorated under the stress of a £70-a-week cut to his benefit.

Meacher added: “Colin worried he would lose his home, not be able to pay his bills or even afford food. His health deteriorated, his seizures increased due to stress, and he lost a lot of weight.

“On April 3 this year he had a massive seizure that killed him.

“Colin is just one of many victims of this unfair system.

“Even though they deny it, I believe Atos have been given a target to get two-thirds of people off incapacity benefit.

“There are thousands of people being told wrongly that they are able to work. The Government have admitted that 11,000 people forced on to work-related activity after assessments have died before getting work.

“I am trying to gather all the cases I can, because this is a massive injustice. I am prepared to campaign for months or years until this is addressed properly.”

Atos have defended their role in the benefit crackdown. A spokeswoman said: “Our doctors, nurses and physiotherapists use their clinical knowledge and apply the Government’s policy and criteria to each assessment.

“We try to make the part of the process we are responsible for as comfortable as possible.”

Sometimes I wish my cancer had killed me

After being left on the breadline by Atos, cancer survivor Margaret Monaghan often wishes her treatment had failed.

The mum-of-two was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago and now suffers terrible pain in her limbs as well as depression.

But after FOUR Atos assessments, she is still being refused disability living allowance, and is struggling to raise her young family on Job Seekers Allowance.

Margaret, 45, of Stevenston, Ayrshire, said: “I just feel completely ignored and I get really down about it.

“I’d love to work but I can’t get a job. My memory has been destroyed by my illness and I have terrible pains all over my body.

“I had a mastectomy, the doctor says my nerves have been damaged by the chemotherapy and I have suffered terrible bouts of depression.

“I’ve been to four Atos assessments but they always find I’m fit for work, despite the fact no employer would give me a job in a million years.

“At my lowest points I truly wish that the cancer treatment hadn’t worked, because I feel the life I have been left with just isn’t worth living.

“I have an 11-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son and it breaks my heart because I can’t give them the things I would like to because I have so little money.

“It is clear to everyone that Atos have been brought in to get people off benefits to save money.

“They don’t care what your condition is. Something has to be done about it, not just for me, but for thousands of people out there in the same position.” 

Article From The Independent By Jerome Taylor
via the Social Welfare Union

A London borough which was forced to pay out damages to a father after his autistic son was illegally removed from his care have threatened to withdraw the family's housing benefit.

Mark Neary, who fought a lengthy court battle to have his son Steven returned to him after he was wrongly removed from his care, says he risks being made homeless after his housing benefit was reassessed by Hillingdon Council.

The 53-year-old relationship counsellor has lived with Steven in a small flat for the last three years. He works around 21 hours a week and, until recently, received help to pay for some the monthly rent. Following a change of employer earlier this summer he was left with a slightly reduced annual income and so applied to Hillingdon for an increase in his housing benefit. Instead he was told by housing officers that the contributions would be stopped altogether.

The decision came just weeks after Hillingdon was ordered by a court to pay Steven £35,000 in damages after they illegally deprived him of his liberty for nine months. Hillingdon insists the decision to cancel his housing benefit has nothing to do with the payment of damages.

Despite paying housing benefit for the last three years Hillingdon has now decided that Mr Neary is ineligible for financial help towards his rent because he owns a family home with his wife. Mr Neary moved his son out of the family home because his wife fell ill and it was not in Steven's best interests to return there.

Hillingdon have suggested he move back into the house but he insists that his wife's illness would make it impossible. A second option is to transfer the tenancy agreement to Steven's name. But the difficulty with this option is twofold. Because of Steven's autism, he would need to be assessed to see whether he has the mental capacity to become a tenant – something that is unlikely given that the Court of Protection has already accepted he does not have the capacity to make key decision such as where he lives. Secondly, once the damages are transferred to Steven he will be £35,000 better off and would likely be considered inadmissible for housing benefit.

"We're just at a loss at the moment," Mr Neary told The Independent.

"The situation feels very bleak."

Linda Sanders, director of social care, health and housing at Hillingdon Council, said: "All of this is in no way related to his son Steven's care and is certainly not an attempt to 'claw back' any compensation."

Editor's Comment: These local council creeps just don't know how to lose gracefully, do they?

It's been a while since the last post, but now here are two videos that I recommend you watch carefully. 

If it wasn't so terribly sad it might be comedy. Under this government though, all it has been is a comedy of incompetence, crookedness and vile indifference to the human cost.

They are utter self-serving bastards and I want to live to see every last one of them swing for what they have done to this nation of ours! Expenses up to £90m again while there are children starving in this, the seventh richest nation in the entire world!  It is not only morally wrong, it is CRIMINALLY wrong and yet the politicised police do nothing to curb the excesses that are now flaunted openly in the public's faces!

More on the man who who wants people off benefits

Bully-boy Cameron Roasted By Dorries in Tatler Interview

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/cameron-patronising-sexist-080329233.html

Outspoken Tory MP Nadine Dorries has launched a fresh attack on David Cameron, branding him patronising and sexist and challenged him to "spend more of his time being a Conservative".

In an interview with Tatler magazine, she dismissed the Prime Minister as "a sheep in wolf's clothing" while praising his old rival Boris Johnson as a Tory who could reach out to ordinary voters.

Ms Dorries previously hit the headlines when she denounced Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne as "arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk".

In her latest onslaught, she indicated that she is still angry at his put-down of her at Prime Minister's Question's when he called her "frustrated". She said: "It was a patronising, sexist thing to do, and that's not the act of a statesman or someone worthy of the position of Prime Minister."

The MP, who posed for a fashion shoot for the magazine standing on a table on the House of Commons terrace wearing a £1,299 Oscar de la Renta dress and a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes, also had another go at the Chancellor. "George Osborne is a Machiavellian who manipulates people and practises dark arts," she said.

Despite her criticisms of the party leadership, Ms Dorries insisted that she was not a natural rebel and had, in the past, held Mr Cameron in great affection.

"I've never been disloyal to this party until now. If you had asked me even 18 months ago: would you ever vote against your party? I would have said: no because the party is much bigger and more important than me. And because I felt great affection for Dave in a sisterly brotherly kind of way."

Amid intense speculation that Mr Johnson is positioning himself for a future Tory leadership challenge, she pointedly praised the London mayor. "I love Boris. He reaches the parts that other politicians can't. And he had an office next to mine and I used to go and wake him up to make him vote," she said.

"But what's important is that he does more than speak inwards into Westminster. There are millions of people out there who need to know that there are ordinary people in Parliament. They've got this impression of us, and we've got a responsibility to break that image."

Ms Dorries is the latest Tory to speak out over Mr Cameron's leadership amid continuing unease within the party ranks as MPs prepare to return to Westminster on Monday following the summer break. Former minister Tim Yeo challenged him to show whether he was "man or mouse", while fellow Conservative backbencher Brian Binley accused the Prime Minister of acting as "chambermaid" to his Liberal Democrat coalition partners.

Disabled people peacefully protesting against government cuts that are killing disabled people were physically attacked by police in a demonstration outside the Department for Work and Pensions today.

Without any provocation from the peaceful protesters who had gathered to show their support to disabled activists from DPAC, police used heavy handed tactics and pushed the crowd without any concern for the disabled wheelchair users lined up in front of the door despite repeated warning that disabled people were being placed at risk. Their actions resulted in one of the protesters having his shoulder broken. Another wheelchair user’s chair was broken in this unprovoked and disproportionate use of force by the police. The police made several attempts to unbalance protestors at the front of the crowd and broke one man’s glasses.

The wheelchair user, Patrick Lynch, hurt in the incident said, “The police officer involved was a thug and a bully, not fit to wear the uniform. If he hadn’t been in the police he would be facing charges for assault“

One of the peaceful protesters inside who was there to support the disabled activists occupying the foyer of the DWP building heard what was happening and attempted to alert police to the fact there were wheelchair users being crushed in the line and in danger of being hurt. Legal observers who attended the event will have witnessed this incident. As a result he was arrested and went peacefully. At the time of this statement he is still inCharing Crosspolice station and we have no further information as yet.

DPAC spokesperson Maud Wilkinson said, “What happened is regrettable. Taken in the context of the week of action this was an isolated incident. But disabled people will not stop organising and mobilising the resistance to the brutal attack on disabled people being perpetrated by the ConDem Government.”

At the end of the protest those occupying the DWP foyer left voluntarily and the demonstration ended peacefully and without further incident.

All the demonstrations organised by DPAC in this week of activity and previously have passed off without incident or arrest. We believe that the use of force by police was excessive, unnecessary, reckless and contravened our right to peaceful protest. It’s also difficult to see the police response as anything other than an attempt to provoke a violent reaction from the protestors.

The Legal Observers were Green and Black Cross 07946541511 

Earlier today large numbers of peaceful activists from DPAC, UKUNCUT and many other protest groups gathered outside the ATOS head office to raise awareness of the hypocrisy of ATOS sponsorship of the Paralympics at the same time as destroying disabled people’s lives.

After about 2 hours a small group of disabled activists and allies moved to blockade DWP office and demand to speak to Ian Duncan Smith and minister for disabled people Maria Miller. Although they occupied the building’s reception area and blockaded the doors these activists were also entirely peaceful and non-threatening.

However as usual when the police do not know what to do or how best to respond the Territorial Support Group was sent in mob handed. Officers from TSG were seen psyching themselves up for trouble and although they were informed on several occasions that there were several disabled people in the crowd they approached the building and the protesters in an entirely inappropriate manner rushing forward and pushing other protesters onto the row of wheelchair users. One was tipped out of their wheelchair, another was hospitalised with a fractured shoulder and one was arrested.

The person arrested is at Charing Cross Police Station and we are waiting for news, the others have been treated in hospital. It is sad that after so many protests where the police have behaved so responsibly that they have – when the eyes of the world are on the UK and its disabled athletes – sunk so low as to treat disabled protesters in this way.

Although this was a very unsatisfactory response from the TSG it will not stop us protesting for our rights and our lives in the future.

http://bambuser.com/v/2946786 8Mins in

Editor's Comment: State-sponsored thugs, the lot of them. One of them waffles on in his blog about PFTP - Policing For The People. Utter crap, as today's disgusting episode shows. The Met PFTP's alright - Police For The Politicians.

Today's police make me ashamed that I ever tried to defend them.

With the controversy over the government’s use of the private firm Atos to carry out Work Capability Assessments, the impact on people who have been claiming disability benefits has led to allot of criticism over the way in which these new tests have been implemented.

The same company that is performing these tests for the DWP have also sponsored the paralymic games and again the spotlight has been placed on AToS again.

Here the company is discussed in the current affairs program News Night where the company along with the government is criticised for its welfare reforms, the WCA and disability rights.