I pay the Comcast Empire 107.50 every month to have basic cable and broadband internet. In a year, this amounts to $1290.00

An internet, phone and tv package can cost as little as £17 per month all in (plus £11 line rental) If you buy an HD ready box from your provider you then have to pay extra for HD ready broadcast, a recorder box and all of the available channels means you pay extra, plus your phone calls on top. Some phone packages include free evening and week-end calls, others have international calls for an extra £5 per month and there are other add-ons such as call any other provider at any time of the day from £2 per month. Prices for download speeds varies

Granted, no one minds paying National Insurance towards our healt care costs. Our taxes go towards free schooling and school meals etc. What us Brits are protesting over is the fact that the majority of people do not watch BBC programmes and yet we are forced to buy a liscense, failure to do so can see you being fined and subsequently jailed if you do not pay the fine, and can even end up with the bailiffs after you AND a mark against your credit rating............. Is that fair? I think the other gripe most of us have is having to pay liscense fee for a laptop, computer and mobile phone, when we already pay for the airtime through the phone companies.

Bout time for ya'll ta have a Tea Party and dump the pork what's taxing you to the grave.

Willing, I declare you King Of England!!! All hail him who speaks wisely. I bow, my liege.

at least I know that your government likes to screw with ya'll too

{{whispering}}Bonny be careful how you bow to Willing... you know what they say about those quiet ones

Throughout the centuries governments have been known to screw the populus up the jacksy!!!

they just need to let me rule the world.

Seriously, seems all politicians have gone flat friggen nuts and want the world under their thumbs.

Idi Amin, Dada, was flat out tyrannical. Nobody had to even guess what his motive was or suffer for long. He just killed ya.

These Tyrants we have now, are sadistic. They treat us like frogs in boiling water. Turning up the heat a little at a time til it's too late, they've boiled us. All we did was sit there and let 'em.

I'm not silly, I will bow with one eye on him!!!

Yeah, ya' gotta' be real careful about bowing with you back to me. We both might get a surprise!

With Idi Amin there was no hidden agenda, he was an out and out tyrant, he made no secret of it. Politicians in the West condemmed him, yet, infront of over very eyes ( and through those we elected) we are being shafted.............. Suddenly we have no voices and certainly no choices. Our minds are made up for us by the men in grey suits who sit in oak panneled rooms and say stuff like "let them eat cake" whilst taking the bread out of our mouths. I don't know if the expenses scandal of British government ministers has hit the USA or the ghastly scandal of the bankers with their over huge bonuses after nearly ruining the entire banking system. the old addage; one rule for them...........

Bonnie ...

I so well remember this from my years in London and, well, all the UK now that I recall!

I remember the malevolent Big Brother trucks that would scan houses and ticket them for noncompliance ...

It was sinister really, esp for such lil delivery as just the couple of channels that signed off at midnight, as you mentioned ...

Rather Dark Ages, I'm sorry to hear some parts of the empire just never let go, grrrrrrrrrrrrr ...

Oh God! You know about those scanner vans with the HUGE aerials on the top? It is worse now, whenever someone buys a television set, the shops are obliged to take your name and address and pass it over to the TV liscense office, they in turn enter your details on a data base, they then send you reminders for a liscense, they know if you haven't got one just by entering your post code (zip number) then they send the bully boys from Big Brother Center round.............

Oh, Gaaaawwwwwwdddd ... Do I ever remember them???!!!

... They were straight out of the '1984' film, not to mention the book!!!

That is just so whack, yet totally true to their character, what they are doin' now and how they've stepped it up!

Almost makes ya feel as if in China in a door to door check for more than one baby!

... ... No one expects THE Spanish Inquisition!!! ...

People with a dish for tv didn't need the converter box either, only those still using rabbit ears - mostly in large urban areas.

Oh, Gaaaawwwwwwdddd ... Do I ever remember them???!!!

... They were straight out of the '1984' film, not to mention the book!!!

That is just so whack, yet totally true to their character, what they are doin' now and how they've stepped it up!

Almost makes ya feel as if in China in a door to door check for more than one baby!

... ... No one expects THE Spanish Inquisition!!! ...


Did you ever unplug your tv when you saw the van at the top of your street and you knew you did not have a liscense? I swear the telephones of my mother-in-laws neighbours used to ring right off the hook, people would phone each other the moment they saw the van.

Hey, it isn't only tv liscense they chase, the same goes for road tax on your car. The moment you have a car and apply for insurance, your name is entered into a data base, should you sell the car you have to let them know the car is no longer with you. The DVLA now drive past your house and scan any car they see and apparently they know if the car is hidden in a garage, if you do not have road tax, your car is towed away and crushed! There are television adverts telling you they will crush your cars if you don't have road tax!!

Did you ever unplug your tv when you saw the van at the top of your street and you knew you did not have a liscense? I swear the telephones of my mother-in-laws neighbours used to ring right off the hook, people would phone each other the moment they saw the van.

Hey, it isn't only tv liscense they chase, the same goes for road tax on your car. The moment you have a car and apply for insurance, your name is entered into a data base, should you sell the car you have to let them know the car is no longer with you. The DVLA now drive past your house and scan any car they see and apparently they know if the car is hidden in a garage, if you do not have road tax, your car is towed away and crushed! There are television adverts telling you they will crush your cars if you don't have road tax!!


I'm afraid that if I answer the question truthfully w/ an affirmative, they'll jump the next jet, storm the bldg, take my firstborn and firebomb the bldg. upon departure for good measure!

Hey, I'm a Webel w/out a clause ... Fight the power, fight the man, fight the feebled Empire ...

... So, that would be a HELL YES!!! ...

To my credit, I never owned a telly in my entire life, until my last 2 years in London. (Been downhill every since!) BUT ... I lived in so many flats where my roomies were sweatin ' it out!!!

... That car shite is pathetically, believably TYPICAL, and so far past wrong!!!

... ...UUUUGGGGHHHH!!!

I have learnt some very colourful language in the past five years. Do you remember Wolfie Smith?