I once won a magazine competition for the world's most boring book title with this little stunner: Hospital Purchase Records Containing Grain Price Records in Fifteenth Century Ghent. It was, as the editor described it, the 'nuclear weapon' of the competition.

I've held back until now with an equivalent nuclear weapon against the BBC.

Forget its bias. Forget its arrogance. Forget its profligacy. Forget its corruption.

Here's the most directly practical reason why the license fee is barking mad. I have Sky Plus, and thus watch my TV via a digital receiver. A few weeks ago, the BBC started broadcasting its channels on a different frequency. I know not why. Some viewers, it said, would have to retune their satellite dishes. So I called the engineer to do just that.

To cut a (very) long story short - three visits, three engineers, and lots of wasted money later - they came to the conclusion that I would never again be able to receive BBC TV. I live very close to the Telecom Tower, and the transmitters on the top of the tower wipe out the signal on the BBC's new frequency.

So for the past few weeks I haven't been able to receive a single BBC channel. (I have to say that I don't miss it at all. The only thing I was bothered about was its - pretty limited - horse racing coverage, and I can get that from AtTheRaces.)

But I do, of course, still have to pay the license fee.

Glorious, eh?
MessageSpace