TAKING A LOAD OFF NANNY AND HER NAGGING ISSUE
GOSH, Nanny hasn’t shut up this week. Everything seems to be annoying her. Firstly, she criticised BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Apparently Nanny has been listening to this show since she was 15. It comforts her like an old friend, and she would hate to see it go.
For me, it passed its sell-by date ages ago and is rather dull and boring. Ever since I was young I’ve worked in radio, so I tried to convince Nanny that commercial radio is better. That was one thing.
Then Nanny became very concerned about manure. It all started the other day when a horse deposited a large load outside her house. Nanny was incensed. She said if she didn’t pick her dog’s mess up she could be fined, and quite rightly. So why should horse owners be allowed to get away with it? I tried to make the point she could collect it for her garden, but that didn’t go down well.
I also tried to tell her that someone getting off their horse to pick up its manure might cause more problems than it would solve – and that didn’t go down well either.
In the end we compromised. In cities where horses are part of the traffic they often wear a contraption that catches the manure as they go along. I’ve certainly seen it used on horse-drawn carriages. Maybe, I suggested, such devices could be used on horses that are ridden for fun on country roads, and that the police could enforce this as a way of keeping the peace.
I don’t think this is at all likely but my suggestion seemed to calm Nanny down.
CAMPAIGNERS at a pensioner pressure group have claimed the rise in the TV licence fee is a “slap in the face” for elderly viewers already struggling.
An annual colour licence goes up from £157.50 to £159 on April 1. Free licences were axed for most over-75s last year.
Tim Davie, BBC director-general, has claimed that not reinstating the charge for older viewers would have cost the corporation £700million.
But Dennis Reed, director of the Silver Voices group, said the price increase will hit the vulnerable.
He added: “There is no justification
for a rise. The BBC must have been saving some money over the pandemic period because we are getting a diet of repeats.
“New live programming is fairly low.You would have thought that they would want to tighten their belts in order to avoid placing more problems on struggling pensioners.”
England cricket legend Ian Botham last week claimed the BBC was causing “immense distress” to older viewers who failed to pay up.
He wrote to Mr Davie: “Frail people are receiving demands which explicitly threaten criminal prosecution.”
The Ashes winner, a member of the Lords, vowed to tackle “bullying” by collection officials: “I’m not afraid to take this issue by the horns.”
The cost of the licence is set by the Government and has been calculated in line with inflation since April 2017.
Ministers said last month they were not going to decriminalise non-payment of the fee but will keep the issue under “active consideration”. Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary said the Government remained concerned that a criminal sanction was “disproportionate and unfair”.
The BBC said decriminalising fee evasion and switching to a civil system would cost it more than £1billion and lead to significant cuts.
Mr Davie says charging for a licence is the best way of funding the BBC.
A BBC TV licencing spokeswoman said: “We have implemented changes for the over-75s with the greatest care.
“We have ensured no one needs to leave home to apply. We are giving people plenty of time to get set up and there are flexible payment plans to help spread the cost.”