Letters / Donating the licence fee
Having cancelled my TV licence on 30 April due to bias in the referendum debate, and poor quality news reporting in general, this temporary measure has been made permanent.
I contacted the BBC Trust in London to appraise them of my displeasure with their services, and no more live TV would be watched nor recorded at my address. They agreed this was my choice and were sorry to see me go.
The normal letters from Capita, the BBC’s licensing administrators and ‘enforcers’ continue to correspond with ‘The Occupier’, lie unopened and placed in the bin with other items of junk mail.
During 2014 I invested my £146.50 in alternative media, which I found to be less biased.
In future years I will donate this money annually to the Salvation Army food banks in Lerwick until there is no longer a need for them.
I admit to being shocked at the reaction, when mentioning to a few friends that food banks in Shetland were a disgrace. “Are there food banks in Shetland?” they ask.
I do not believe for one minute people are simply closing their comfortable doors on those with nothing to eat. Surely, it must be down to lack of knowledge on the problems faced by their neighbours?
We can only hope our local media gives more coverage to food banks, fuel poverty etc, than our MP who voted for Westminster’s austerity cuts.
Until people in Shetland have enough to eat I will politely but firmly tell the BBC to get stuffed.
Douglas Young
Sumburgh
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