Author: Atlantean

Atlantean: Behind The TV License

By on 10th February 2016in Have Your Say

Long time In & Around contributor Atlantean takes a moment to reflect on the TV license…

I don’t suppose many of us think much about TV licensing, especially since 77% of us pay by direct debit.

I own a small house which will be sold shortly, but which has been used for storage for several years. Although it’s furnished and has two old computers (both incapable of receiving television programmes), it hasn’t had a TV licence since 1995, when I bought it. Nevertheless, when clearing out the post the other week, I came across several letters from TV licensing. There were 22 in all, which in postage alone cost them over £13. 

I usually chuck them away, occasionally sending a reply in to state there is no TV on the premises. Still, I was interested in why they would send 22 letters when I had made clear on many occasions that there was no TV on the premises.

Instead of stating that ‘court papers were being prepared’, why not just send a chap round to check and settle the matter once and for all? Apparently 3.9m visits were made by enforcement officers, so why didn’t one put a note through the door? Obviously you can’t get them to come by appointment in case you just shipped the telly next door for a few hours, but this deluge of paper backed up by no action didn’t seem very effective.

Meanwhile, 95% of some 31m properties are correctly licensed, and 4,119,530 free licences for the over 75s are in force. An interesting statistic is that in County Durham there are 13 households still watching black and white television – even though BBC2 Colour transmissions started in 1968 – and 9,356 across the rest of the nation. Further, the analogue signal was progressively turned off three years ago, and we all now receive a digital signal.

So what on earth are these people watching?

Even if their old black and white televisions still worked, there isn’t a signal for them to receive! If they are only listening to radio, no licence is required, as the radio licence (which started in 1922) had been phased out in the same month as decimalisation in February 1971.

The normal colour licence is £145.50, but the B/W one is only £49. 26p a day extra would give them the right to full colour viewing… and a signal.

If you have a black and white licence, I would love to know what you use it for. I would invite you to send me an email at atlantean247@yahoo.co.uk, but you probably don’t have a computer either, so please contact me via the editor.

Meanwhile, if you want to have a B/W licence, you won’t be able to buy it on the website, as it’s only available over the phone on 0300 790 6165. I think I’ll ring them and ask…

The monthly fee works out at £12.13 per month, of which £7.27 goes on television, £1.94 on radio, plus a further 73p on World Service and 73p more on other services, plus 61p on online services. The actual fee collection by Capita, PayPoint and others costs 85p. These figures are for 2014/5, so the BBC’s comprehensive internet service currently costs less than the charge to collect the licence fee. Interestingly, the postal address for TV Licensing is in our area, at Greenbank Road in Darlington DL98 1TL. I wonder what goes on there – perhaps I ought to find out!

Atlantean: The Weather Is Snow Joke

By on 15th December 2015in Have Your Say

Long time In & Around contributor Atlantean takes a moment to reflect on what happens following the recent Paris conference…

 

January is a time for New Year’s resolutions.

Following the climate change conference in Paris, the world has one very big resolution to uphold, and it’s signed up to by 195 countries. In mid-December, environmental campaigners Greenpeace asked its supporters which of the following issues were most important to them:

  • Health of the Oceans
  • War and Conflict
  • Corporate Excess
  • Melting of the Arctic
  • Political Corruption
  • Unemployment
  • Global Poverty
  • Deforestation
  • Fracking

If you think about the importance of all these issues for a moment, it’ll make your head spin. When I was a lad, we worried about cold war annihilation, world population growth (then only at 4 billion), and whether the next ice age was on the way.

This year, when winter hit on the afternoon of 12th December, many motorists and householders were caught out. A few years ago, snow rarely came before early January, and it seems many people were completely unprepared to drive in snowy conditions, crawling around at 15mph when conditions demanded faster – but careful – driving… particularly when going up hills. Who had a shovel and de-icer in their cars? Or were prepared with gloves and scarves?

Sat-Navs were overloaded with red and yellow congestion warnings around the region, but why is it that whenever snow falls, so many drivers abandon all use of indicators and signals?

By the next day, a general thaw had helped to ease the situation, and perhaps some of those people who had resolved to buy snow tyres for their vehicles actually then did so. They make a big difference to Mrs. Atlantean’s car (my own vehicle being parked in disgrace after the emissions scandal of last month).

With climate change comes the expectation of much more extreme weather on its way. More snowfall, more heavy rain, and more flooding. We’re seeing evidence of it all the time, yet the naysayers can still be heard. It’s highly convenient to be a climate change denier, since you don’t actually have to do anything, but for how long can we ignore what is happening right in front of us?

Ask yourself… where is the harm in turning down the heating and wearing a thicker jumper? Where is the harm in parking the car and trying public transport?

If we accept that it is happening, and that it is the fault of mankind, then we can move on to the more important questions… like are we past the tipping point already? Can global warming be prevented, or is our only option now to limit the damage we’re causing?

I have sad news for those poor people who have been flooded out twice in places like Cumbria over the last few years. Get used to the idea that it will probably happen again very soon.

Atlantean: Volkswagen’s Smoking Gun

By on 16th November 2015in Have Your Say, In & Around, Lifestyle, What's New?

Long time In & Around contributor Atlantean takes a moment to reflect on the Volkswagen scandal…

I own a Volkswagen Golf.

Not something I am particularly proud of at the moment, as a paid up supporter of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and a supporter of Oxfam and internet campaigning group Avaaz.

With the Paris Climate Change Summit coming up (30th November to 11th December) with the aim of trying to arrest global warming, many commentators are warning that we are at – or beyond – the tipping point when planet warming becomes irreversible.

I was surfing the Volkswagen GB website recently, finding nothing about the emissions scandal, when to my surprise I found the following message at the bottom of the page:

“Our CO2 and consumption values are provisional and are currently under review. Revised values will be published if necessary.”

But hang on… the scandal was not about CO2. It was about nitrous oxides from diesel engines. On top of 11 million vehicles worldwide (508,276 of them in the UK), we can now add a minimum of 800,000 petrol cars too.

I took my four month old Golf into my dealer, Pulman of Durham, and requested to hand the vehicle back in if it were affected by the scandal. Their immediate response was that I should contact their solicitors.

How’s that for customer service, before we even established if my car was affected?

I had said nothing about going to law. I was willing to hand back the car and cancel the finance agreement under the Sale of Goods Act. They checked, and yes, my diesel car was affected.

Five weeks later, having heard nothing, I phoned Pulman, whose receptionist had never heard of NOx emissions. Wonderful. I was told I could check on line, so I entered my car’s vehicle identification number, and was told that my car was NOT affected.

By now unsure, I was willing to hand back the keys and cancel the agreement even if the car was not affected by ‘dieselgate’. I wondered why my car wasn’t affected. Had VW had a change of heart and stopped fitting the defeat device? Why should they do that? Many people are signing up for a class action against Volkswagen being formulated by solicitors Slater and Gordon, and I think I will join them.

According to latest estimates, it looks like I may have to wait until well into next year to have my car fixed. But what will VW do? Will the fix affect performance of the engine and/or fuel consumption? Will there be any compensation, as there is in the United States?

If their car performs as well as before, and doesn’t use any more fuel, many people won’t be bothered so long as their car is fixed. However, I’m bothered about emissions, and chose a VW on the grounds of its better emissions performance. Even if my own car is unaffected – and I have had conflicting advice, remember– I do not wish to be associated with the brand.

They’ve finally got over the disgrace of building the People’s Car for Adolf Hitler, and now this!

Pulman of Durham, pay attention. You need to up your game with regard to customer service and make some communication with your customers, and if you do not have the answers from VW that you need, I suggest you find yourselves a different motor franchise or face the consequences within a year.

Have you been affected by this scandal? I’d like to know your thoughts. Write to atlantean247@yahoo.co.uk.

Atlantean

Atlantean: It’s All Downhill Until Christmas

By on 1st November 2015in Have Your Say, What's New?

Long time In & Around contributor Atlantean takes a moment to reflect on the run-up to Christmas, and how the North East will be spending the next few months…

Well, Hallowe’en has past and we’re on our way to Christmas!

Advent calendars and Christmas cards are in the shops – the charity shops seem to lead the way with cards on sale from September. It’s that gradual move into winter where we lose three minutes off the end of every day, and – if you’re up – three minutes from the front too. That’s six minutes of daylight every day.

By the time we get to December 21st, it’s dark by 4.15pm, and I never cease to be amazed how wide the range is from shortest to longest day, when on June 21st it isn’t dark in the North East even at 10.45pm.

We observe the Armistice on November 11th and/or on the Remembrance Sunday which is nearest to it. All the more poignant in these current years, which are 100 years on from the horrors of the First World War (1914-18). At the time, it was known as the Great War, until the Second World War (1939-45) gave it a new label.

Sometimes the Lord Mayor’s Show in London falls on the same weekend, but this year the parade is on the 14th November. In Durham, we can look forward to the Lumiere produced by Artichoke, which takes place between Thursday 12th and Sunday 15th November. This has been a phenomenal success in recent years, and needs careful crowd direction and control to avoid a tragedy, especially around the river banks.

As it gets colder and darker, intrepid souls raise awareness of our homelessness situation, and the Bishop of Jarrow is promoting an event at Sunderland Minster on 4th December. It’s a sleep-out, and I note the charity Changing Lives, which used to be known as the Cyrenians, is also having a sleep-out for senior executives on 3rd March.

But for most of us, it’s a time for parties and a time of good will to all men (and women).

I used to have a toy racing circuit in which a car would race around a track, and pass on each circuit through a black tunnel where a mechanism would spring the car into increased speed. That’s the way I often feel about the year as a whole: it races by and we barely have time to draw breath before it’s downhill to Christmas. We enter the tunnel and we’re catapulted out the other side to continue the journey at an even faster pace.

Sometimes, I prefer to slow down, have a think, and consider those people who aren’t as fortunate as us. I’m concerned to learn that there are so many older people living on their own. Whereas I know I have about ten emails to send out on a Sunday, supposedly a day of rest, there are others of who don’t know how to send one and have no contacts to do so.

Don’t get carried away with your shopping this Christmas, and keep an eye on the prices. When I was in Scotland over the summer, I came across Irn Bru in a restaurant and asked whether there was such a thing as Diet Irn Bru. There is! And very tasty it is too. Our local small general store sells large bottles of sugar free Irn Bru for only 99p. On a visit to Tesco I noticed that their Brand Guarantee price applies to the same product – which they sell at £1.70. They compare prices with Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys, but not with my little shop over the road.

My wife noticed something similar with large packs of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, which were £3.50 in Tesco with the Brand Guarantee, but that she bought for £2.50 from our local Post Office and minimart when making some cakes, all of which makes me highly suspicious about supermarket pricing in this supposed season of goodwill.

So what do you think is the real meaning of Christmas? Send your answers to atlantean247@yahoo.co.uk, or leave a comment below.

Atlantean

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