We don’t have a tv licence. We don’t need a tv licence – we’ve checked and double checked. We don’t have a tv and we don’t watch any live tv, nor do we watch any BBC channels. What we do have is a constant stream of threatening and harassing letters from the tv licence people.

We used to get one a month, then we got a few extra, then it died down but now looks like they are starting up again. Here is the latest one:

We do not get in touch with them for a couple of reasons. One is that we have nothing to do with them and feel they have no right to bother us in this way – Sainsburys don’t write to us demanding to know why we don’t buy their organic chicken, for example. The other reason is we do not wish to contract with them and apparently if you reply to them, they see it as you agreeing to making some sort of contract with them. Contract law is too complicated for me at this time of the day but it’s something like that!

Anyway, the bottom line is, we don’t use their product and they have no right to bother us like this. To put this into context, we moved into this property 9 years ago and that’s when the letters started. They expect that if they threaten us or send one of their goons round, we’ll let them in to inspect our computers – I’m not joking, that’s what they want.

I’d love to know, if you live outside the UK, can you watch BBC iplayer and the like without needing a licence? They are trying to get YouTube to agree to making their channel there, subscription only which can surely only complicate matters for all the other channels?

What would you do in this situation? Most of the time, we just throw the letters in the bin, unopened but I wanted to share this one with you!