All of your base... screw it

Boo!

WE KNOWN WHERE YOU LIVE AND ARE COMING FOR YOU!

/brought to you by your friends at the BBC

Big Brother IS watching you.

Like I said here a couple of days ago, collecting personal information is addicting.

Oooh Kayyy...

Britain has gotten seriously frikken scary.

You can shove your database where the sun don't shine.

What about the homeless?

Can someone please explain the video. I can't watch it at my office.

I love the database.

We are the goon squad and we're comin' to town...beep beep.

All your TVs belong to us.

I recently saw a British movie about a gay royal who was followed via these cameras and other means.
It looked like a murder but turned out different.
Lots of people are trying to figure out how to get off the grid in the UK.

Sad that the Brits have to pay a tax to get a license for a TV to get indoctrinated.

The first time British friends told me about the roving BBC vans that rolled around monitoring who was "stealing television", I was SURE they were putting me on. Of course, they weren't. (This was back in the mid-80s, btw.)

It's a dman shame they can't just turn the channel and starve the BBC in Britian due to that inane TV tax that all must pay to the BBC.

re: #9 NoSubmission

Can someone please explain the video. I can't watch it at my office.

Its basically the British Government running a warning for British Citizens to pay their TV tax or else. To paraphrase, You can't hide because you are in the database, we will find you..

No need to worry, they will put it all on a cd as an unencrypted file along with your bank records, medical history, credit cards, and everything else and then send it regular post. The post will then proceed to lose it.

re: #13 mean Gene

I recently saw a British movie about a gay royal who was followed via these cameras and other means.
It looked like a murder but turned out different.
Lots of people are trying to figure out how to get off the grid in the UK.

Hell if I were in charge, I would be figuring out how to bring the grid over the pond to us here!

re: #13 mean Gene

Lots of people are trying to figure out how to get off the grid in the UK.

By leaving

Ah, this would have made Antonio Gramsci so very proud!

It's all in the database matrix.

re: #17 maddogg

Its basically the British Government running a warning for British Citizens to pay their TV tax or else. To paraphrase, You can't hide because you are in the database, we will find you..

Thank goodness all we have to pay for a TV here in the US is just plain old sales tax.

re: #9 NoSubmission

Can someone please explain the video. I can't watch it at my office.

Images comparing aerial views of a computer chip and a city.
Female Narrator: Your town. Your street. Your home. It's all in our database. New technology means it's easy to pay your TV license and impossible to hide if you don't. It's all in the database.
www.tvlicensing.co.uk

re: #17 maddogg

Its basically the British Government running a warning for British Citizens to pay their TV tax or else. To paraphrase, You can't hide because you are in the database, we will find you..

The last sound is a knock on the door.

re: #23 Honorary Yooper

Thank goodness all we have to pay for a TV here in the US is just plain old sales tax.

I guess you haven't seen my cable bill?

Hmmm - video cameras that record every single move anyone makes in most parts of the UK plus TVs that you cannot watch without paying a big fee. And blatant, matter of fact statements that Big Brother is watching, it is ALL in the database, you can neither run nor hid. . . .

Kind of makes you wonder if it isn't still 1984 in the UK

REALLY glad I don't live there - and no surprise that so many Brits of European extraction are getting out.

re: #12 Racer X

All your TVs belong to us.

aren't you too busy with a new movie release to be blogging?

:-D

re: #23 Honorary Yooper

Thank goodness all we have to pay for a TV here in the US is just plain old sales tax.

So far......

If I lived in the UK I would destroy my television.

they're coming after people w/ televisions?
why don't they put that effort into chasing terrorists. look at the technology. the jihadis could be stopped on a dime.

re: #26 Nevergiveup

I guess you haven't seen my cable bill?

Yeah, but you can always discontinue cable or change providers. Not so with the BBC.

re: #9 NoSubmission

Can someone please explain the video. I can't watch it at my office.

It is an ad from the BBC stating that you had better pay your TV licensing fee because they will come after you. It is ALL in the database, you can't run and you can't hide. . .

re: #30 Ringo the Gringo

If I lived in the UK I would destroy my television.

If I lived in the UK I would move my TV to the USA.

It does make me wonder why TV Licensing need to bother with this propaganda when they obviously have all of our details in the database?

Rumoured said database to be lost and made available on one or two DVD's sometime soon!

So wrote "idlefinger", the operative who entered the video into YouTube.....

re: #17 maddogg

Its basically the British Government running a warning for British Citizens to pay their TV tax or else. To paraphrase, You can't hide because you are in the database, we will find you..

Wow. Wonder if they are going after terrorists with such zeal?

When I was little, I though that they could see me from the TV. That's not true is it?

re: #28 paxnhymn

aren't you too busy with a new movie release to be blogging?

:-D

I have people for that.

;-)

But what if you don't own a tv?

what was that damn Brittish Sci-fi series in the 60s where Big Brother would send these giant balloon looking things after people?...verrrry Orwellian and obviously not too far off...

re: #32 Honorary Yooper

Yeah, but you can always discontinue cable or change providers. Not so with the BBC.

But if I disconnected then I could not converse with all of you on LGF.

re: #40 paxnhymn

what was that damn Brittish Sci-fi series in the 60s where Big Brother would send these giant balloon looking things after people?...verrrry Orwellian and obviously not too far off...

It was called The Saint.

re: #40 paxnhymn

The Prisoner?

Is it possible for a Brit to go "off grid" black market TV and satellite?

Frightening, innit?

Not really. Big Brother has had your number since databases were first invented. IBM got its start doing the Census, fer Pete's sake! The Interweb (originally invented to let mainframes talk to each other across distances WITHOUT shipping tape libraries across the Fruited Plains) makes data transfer faster, cheaper, cost-efficient.

BBC is just trying to scare the bejeebers out of The Great Unwashed Masses in the UK to pay their "reciever tax" so the Beeb can continue broadcasting.

Go take a flying leap, Beeb.

JAFLW

Always remember: BBC = Big Brother Cares.

There was a travel show on this weekend with a pretty and witty blonde lady.

She was in Monte Carlo.

They have a casino there that does so well that the ruling family has given free healthcare and free cable to everyone, and there are NO taxes.

(Of course, you have to pay 10 bucks for a can of diet coke)

The people there are happy and hobnob with billionaires on vacation.

Buth, they are subjects. They aren't free. It is a fake picture painted so that the rich are comfortable coming there to spend money.

facism plain and simple.

You will pay to listen to our lies, and if not be fined or go to jail.

re: #32 Honorary Yooper

Yeah, but you can always discontinue cable or change providers. Not so with the BBC.

One thing I noticed when we had cable before we bought this house is that when I turned on the menu it served up ads that you could click on with the remote. And they were talking about ads being served up according to your viewing patters, etc. Really pissed me off, since we paid a hefty sum for the "privilege". Not to mention that it made me wonder just how much information they were gathering this way. And what they were doing with it.

None of that on DirectTV. And lots cheaper than the cable company.

re: #42 NoSubmission

It was called The Saint.

thanks, No Sub....I remember it but not the name... oh well...byebye Union Jack....

re: #12 Racer X

All of your TVs are belong to us.

/it is important that the verbiage is correct. After all,
Big Bro is watching. ;)

re: #42 NoSubmission

It was called The Saint.

Oops! The Prisoner. Sorry. Racer X got it right.

re: #47 LanceKates

sounds like bahrain without the mandated 5 times a day prayer to the moongod

re: #36 NoSubmission

Wow. Wonder if they are going after terrorists with such zeal?

You might recall that when the docs went jihadi a while back the BBC had interviewed them, been told at least enough of the plan to ID the guys and some of their "friends" and refused to turn it over to the police.

And next years ad:
Our records indicate you are thirty six pounds overweight...we have no choice but to block your access to the food channels available on your set until you have corrected this condition...because we care!

That is chilling.

re: #52 NoSubmission

Oops! The Prisoner. Sorry. Racer X got it right.

I get the limey series confused too. They were all strange back then....

This is why I don't file a tax return.

Doctor who is the only show on BBC worth stealing

re: #58 Iron Mike

This is why I don't file a tax return.

/suddenly there was a loud bannging at the door....

Where is the outrage from the Dems. Britain is tracking people like dogs who don't pay their "tv license." Cant people watch TV without the eeevil United StatesBritain invading their privacy.

/moonbat off

If my eyes got any bigger, my eyebrows would be in my hair. That's some spooky message.

re: #53 pegcity

on the surface, monte carlo looks like paradise. No taxes, government provided and paid healthcare (that has to be top notch to also take care of the billionares), free cable....

You just have to be a subject of a ruling family, guarded by the French.

No thanks. I'll take free poverty over rich 'subject-status'.

When a king or prince tells me to pick up their trash, I want to be able to say "No thanks, do it yourself."

Flashing on Three Days of the Condor, a little tiny bit. Except - I assume the BBC doesn't try to kill people.

re: #37 Nevergiveup

When I was little, I though that they could see me from the TV. That's not true is it?

My first confirmed, hard-core "progressive" teacher (Social Studies... what else?... in 7th grade), tried to convince us that NIXON (cue thunderclap, horse whinny) had tried to have all televisions in the US sold with the ability for the government to watch us. We laughed at him. Uh, so Mr. [name withheld], so I guess every, single television repairman in the United States would have to be a CIA agent, right? Or at least be in on the conspiracy?

re: #59 pegcity

Doctor who is the only show on BBC worth stealing

Torchwood also.

Hey, all the IMPORTANT brits have satellites and watch Al Jazeera!
What a country!

Well that's pretty darned creepy. From what I understand, for what it's worth, the UK television license is something like the American electricity bill, paid regularly and tracked by the company.

The Young Ones: TV Licence Anarchy

re: #15 Occasional Reader

The first time British friends told me about the roving BBC vans that rolled around monitoring who was "stealing television", I was SURE they were putting me on. Of course, they weren't. (This was back in the mid-80s, btw.)

Try the 60's! I was over there as an Air Force Brat from '59-'62, and they were doing it 'way back then...

Funniest thing I ever saw was someone throw their (black and white) TV out the window to avoid paying the fine! Couldn't understand then (I was only 6 years old, for Petes sake!), but I certainly can understand it now.

Thank goodness for the U.S.'s Communications Act of 1943! "Receivers are in the Public Domain", etc.

JAFLW

re: #58 Iron Mike

This is why I don't file a tax return.

Is that you Wesley Snipes?

re: #55 gibsonz

And next years ad:
Our records indicate you are thirty six pounds overweight...we have no choice but to block your access to the food channels available on your set until you have corrected this condition...because we care!

Dont forget the other end;

Unfortunately, you are in perfect health, which means you will live too long and the state will be strained to pay for your senior years. You will now be placed on a strict fatty food diet and required to smoke at least a pack a week so your life span fits within government mandated limits.

re: #25 jcm

The last sound is a knock on the door.

Only because they don't carry guns.

re: #42 NoSubmission

The Saint was with Roger Moore. He talking about The Prisoner. Great show.

re: #6 stevieray

Oooh Kayyy...

Britain has gotten seriously frikken scary.

Gotten scary? Has been scary, more like. They're just comfortable enough to be in the open about it.

re: #58 Iron Mike

This is why I don't file a tax return.

Yikes. Good luck with that one...

re: #47 LanceKates

There was a travel show on this weekend with a pretty and witty blonde lady.

She was in Monte Carlo.

They have a casino there that does so well that the ruling family has given free healthcare and free cable to everyone, and there are NO taxes.

(Of course, you have to pay 10 bucks for a can of diet coke)

The people there are happy and hobnob with billionaires on vacation.

Buth, they are subjects. They aren't free. It is a fake picture painted so that the rich are comfortable coming there to spend money.

Most places in Europe the people are subjects. They may be subjects to a government rather than a monarch these days, but in all of the European countries it is the government which holds the power and the legitimacy. Any "freedoms" they are allowed are at the behest of the government. Here it is We The People who hold the authority and legitimacy.

re: #37 Nevergiveup

No, but if you stick your head under your TV set and look up, you can see up Eva Longoria's skirt.

re: #65 Occasional Reader

in 4th grade, I had a student teacher try to tell me that Lincoln was a Democrat.... as proven by his desire to fight slavery because he felt that Blacks were equal to whites.

re: #58 Iron Mike

This is why I don't file a tax return.

Yeah, thats why Leona Helmsley, Willie Nelson, and Wesley Snipes didn't file a return either.

re: #58 Iron Mike

This is why I don't file a tax return.

Solid thinking. Unfortunately, unless you Ted Kazcynski, you're still making into someone's database...

Nothing bad about Islam is allowed in the data base.

re: #74 Killgore Trout

The Saint was with Roger Moore. He talking about The Prisoner. Great show.

yes. It was a great show. I was very little when it was on the air, but I will never ever forget that weird white bubble balloon thing.

re: #55 gibsonz

And next years ad:
Our records indicate you are thirty six pounds overweight...we have no choice but to block your access to the food channels available on your set until you have corrected this condition...because we care!

With the limiting of health care they are already starting to do, you are being more prophetic than you may realize...

Tangentially, this is why I'm opposed to serial numbers inside CPUs and cookies stuffed with enough data to hold a mini operating system.

re: #64 Catttt

Flashing on Three Days of the Condor

My favorite scene: A brilliant CIA analyst, who has to call 411 to get the area code for Washington, DC...

re: #77 galloping granny

God Bless the USA!

re: #25 jcm

The last sound is a knock on the door.

Now, the last sound is the T.V. hitting the ground outside your flat after it's been thrown out the window!

JAFLW

re: #40 paxnhymn

The Prisoner.

Excellent series

re: #69 Ringo the Gringo

The Young Ones: TV Licence Anarchy

That was the funniest show on TV!

Making sure that the 45 million strong English population pay the fee for the 1.5 BILLION non-English speaking BBC target audience.

re: #76 Cartman

Yikes. Good luck with that one...

you do have to file but you don't have to pay.

re: #78 Kenneth

No, but if you stick your head under your TV set and look up, you can see up Eva Longoria's skirt.

...probably clean through to the top of her empty skull....

re: #77 galloping granny

gotta love america, the one true free country in the world, and i say that as a canadian

re: #86 Occasional Reader

My favorite scene: A brilliant CIA analyst, who has to call 411 to get the area code for Washington, DC...

That wouldn't suprise me. The FBI didn't think that the 9/11 13th Hijacker's laptop would have terrorism-related information on it.

re: #68 Cognito

Well that's pretty darned creepy. From what I understand, for what it's worth, the UK television license is something like the American electricity bill, paid regularly and tracked by the company.

Yeah, and they have crews who go around to houses that aren't paying and monitor them to see if there is a TV being watched. You get investigated for no other cause than not ordering TV service.

re: #32 Honorary Yooper

Yeah, but you can always discontinue cable or change providers. Not so with the BBC.

* * *
I don't have a choice about supporting the US' Public Broadcasting either!

Where can I go to stop supporting leftist programming of our people by this federally funded outfit right here in the USA?

re: #78 Kenneth

No, but if you stick your head under your TV set and look up, you can see up Eva Longoria's skirt.

You have a filthy mind. Anyway when I was little, the hot chicks were like Mary Tyler Moore or Lois Lane. And I was on the floor trying to get a better angle.

I am not a number!

re: #40 paxnhymn

what was that damn Brittish Sci-fi series in the 60s where Big Brother would send these giant balloon looking things after people?...verrrry Orwellian and obviously not too far off...

The Prisoner. Available as the whole series on DVD now, most of it in Black & White! Loved it as a kid, but never saw it 'till I moved back to the States with my family...

JAFLW

re: #96 coquimbojoe

Yeah, and they have crews who go around to houses that aren't paying and monitor them to see if there is a TV being watched. You get investigated for no other cause than not ordering TV service.

and, just think.... here in the US, people whine because we pay attention to terrorists overseas, even when they call someone staying here.

re: #58 Iron Mike

This is why I don't file a tax return.

I'd like to know how you do that, and why the IRS isn't sending auditors to your door.

re: #91 Ben Hur

Making sure that the 45 million strong English population pay the fee for the 1.5 BILLION non-English speaking BBC target audience.

You know, their noble effort of getting Britian's message out.

re: #92 nyc redneck

you do have to file but you don't have to pay.

My experience is that the IRS isn't much concerned with "technicalities". Jes sayin'...

re: #92 nyc redneck

I made a mistake on my property tax return filing once, for three years in a row --took them that long to discover it, and then they required it all back.......that was tough!

Any one have a sledgehammer?

re: #44 jcm

Is it possible for a Brit to go "off grid" black market TV and satellite?

I seem to recall reading a blog (linked at Protein Wisdom?) recently that someone tried that, and got increasingly threatening letters from the BBC's collections enforcers for months, and then...

Nothing.

re: #98 Nevergiveup

You have a filthy mind. Anyway when I was little, the hot chicks were like Mary Tyler Moore or Lois Lane. And I was on the floor trying to get a better angle.

Sounds like you're about my age. Remember 'Vue'? The initial little receiver dishes with a descrambler, you got new movies before they came out on cable...and after ten o'clock, they had adult movies. If you could put up with watching the scrambling, every so often the picture would come in clear....heh

re: #95 LanceKates

That wouldn't suprise me. The FBI didn't think that the 9/11 13th Hijacker's laptop would have terrorism-related information on it.

True, dat.

I did like the fight scene with the "Mailman", though. And the Joubert character is very good.

Ah, so the BBC has a database that contains all the vitals for folks who pay or should be paying their tv licensing fees.

If only the Brits were as good with the databases noting how poor dental care is in the country - and the fact that dental issues have significant economic impact on health care costs should routine care get ignored.

It's about misplaced priorities, though if the Brits had a terror tracking database this comprehensive, I don't think we'd be minding nearly as much about this Orwellian scheme.

re: #90 Racer X

That was the funniest show on TV!

I agree.

I bought the DVD box set ("every stoopid episode") a couple years ago and it's still as funny as ever.

It does sound like 1984 being fulfilled right in front of our eyes...

re: #72 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Dont forget the other end;

Unfortunately, you are in perfect health, which means you will live too long and the state will be strained to pay for your senior years. You will now be placed on a strict fatty food diet and required to smoke at least a pack a week so your life span fits within government mandated limits.

Fine. My smokes just went up 10 cents a pack, and my bourbon by a few bucks.

re: #88 Just Another Four-letter Word

Now, the last sound is the T.V. hitting the ground outside your flat after it's been thrown out the window!

JAFLW

Didn't hit the ground...
Hit the tax collector.

re: #108 bikermailman

Sounds like you're about my age. Remember 'Vue'? The initial little receiver dishes with a descrambler, you got new movies before they came out on cable...and after ten o'clock, they had adult movies. If you could put up with watching the scrambling, every so often the picture would come in clear....heh

Before they really scrambled the signals, you get alot of the pay boxing fights that way also. I use to call it "Bundying the fight" --as in Al Bundy.

re: #101 LanceKates

and, just think.... here in the US, people whine because we pay attention to terrorists overseas, even when they call someone staying here.

The left loves to bitch. They will investigate for no cause and not investigate for probable cause. I think that points to their priorities. Strictly control our sources of information, but external threats are seen, at best, to be of minimal importance, unless it directly threatens them....

This piece was written six months ago as pure satire:-

[Link: bbcpioneers.blogspot.com...]

- and now it's all come to pass.

Just a little taste of life in the USSSK.

Buddy can you spare a green card.

I wonder if they would use that data base to stop an imminent terror attack (on a target besides their own office building).

re: #50 paxnhymn

The show with the balloon thingy was The Prisoner , starring Patrick McGoohan, who previously starred in a secret agent show that was much more watchable, IMHO.

Britain has charged for a receiving set license since the early days of radio, and simply carried on the tradition with the advent of TV. Not so much Orwellian as it is a simple money grab, just like a dog license is. We used to do the same thing here in Canada, but abandoned the practice sometime in the late '40s or early '50s. I collect old radios, and often find stickers on them reminding users to obtain a license.

Seeing as you can get most anything worthwhile, TV-wise, off the Internet now, I wonder if Brits will simply abandon their TVs, and use their Internet connection to watch video.

re: #107 Spiny Norman

I seem to recall reading a blog (linked at Protein Wisdom?) recently that someone tried that, and got increasingly threatening letters from the BBC's collections enforcers for months, and then...

Nothing.

Britain has a careful method of noting and monitoring compliance with any law, no matter how trivial, but no will to enforce any of them. That's my impression, based only on news reports (never been there).

re: #79 LanceKates

in 4th grade, I had a student teacher try to tell me that Lincoln was a Democrat.... as proven by his desire to fight slavery because he felt that Blacks were equal to whites.

Lincoln did not give a rat's behind about the slavery question and said so more than once. I also have never seen much that indicated that he used the question of black slavery as anything other than a politically expedient means to get the support that he needed for the War Between the States.

Not to mention that quite apparently your student teacher was sadly misinformed about the history of the KKK and which political party they voted. Along with virtually all the rest of the South I might add.

re: #118 Ben Hur

on a target besides their own office building

You mean BUSH House? BWAAAHAHAHAHA (I loves me dat irony)

re: #109 Occasional Reader

Oh, I haven't seen that film, your description is what reminded me.

re: #97 alegrias

* * *
I don't have a choice about supporting the US' Public Broadcasting either!

Where can I go to stop supporting leftist programming of our people by this federally funded outfit right here in the USA?

Hardly the same thing. PBS gets only a minor amount of support from the government these days - and they have to match every dime. They do not come around and literally charge you hundreds for the privilege of owning a TV set.

re: #116 coquimbojoe

The left loves to bitch. They will investigate for no cause and not investigate for probable cause. I think that points to their priorities. Strictly control our sources of information, but external threats are seen, at best, to be of minimal importance, unless it directly threatens them....

Well, bullying conservatives is what the left cares about. Terrorist action doesn't matter, as they can just blame it on the republicans.

Republicans, being increasingly de-spined by the left, will take the blame by nature of not sayi