Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
OAPS’ Cornish screen tease
Protest at over-75s’ TV licence fees
FURIOUS OAPS are plotting to confuse BBC administrators by writing cheques in Cornish as they voice their anger at losing free TV licences.
Pensioners are planning a campaign to “gum up the works” when the fees kick in on August 1. The Silver Voices OAPS group aims to make it more difficult for officials to operate the licensing system.
It could include writing cheques for the £157.50-a-year fee in Cornish or Gaelic, “forgetting” to date or sign them, or making them for the wrong amount.
Silver Voices’ director Dennis Reed said: “Our campaign has fired the imagination of older people who are fed up of having their lives and contributions undervalued by society. We now feel able to take direct action to protect our
A DEMO track David Bowie cut as an aspiring star in 1966 that only a few people have heard is going under the hammer.
Mainstream pop ditty I Do Believe I Love You came three years before the trippy Space Oddity launched him to fame.
The acetate, unearthed in a back catalogue collection, is set to fetch up to £5,000 at Wessex Auction Rooms in Chippenham, Wilts, on Friday.
Auctioneer Martin Hughes said: “As one of only a few who has heard the recording, I am still amazed this musical treasure has been uncovered.”
Bowie died in 2016, aged 69, after battling liver cancer. rights. The intention of our campaign is to force the Government and the BBC to find a way to reinstate this vital benefit.”
The Tories have handed responsibilty for funding free TV licences to the BBC. From
August, only over-75s on pension credit will be eligible for the benefit, which the
Mirror is campaigning to save. Silver Voices’ plan, first revealed by the Mirror, is aimed at making the cost of administering and enforcing the licence fee “much more expensive than keeping the free licence for a relatively small group”. Labour peer Lord George Foulkes said: “Older people have contacted me worried they will have to give up their TV or refuse to pay and get into trouble.”