Photo thread for the heck of it

[Deskpilot]

Whilst driving in England,. . .I noticed that "unpowered trailers" are not registered, whilst in Australia we have to pay exorbitant fee's.spacesailer

Not registered but must have the same reg number as the car. May have change now-a-days but that was the case 40 years ago.

 

 

[Jaba-who]

I'm not absolutely certain as I was very young but I have a recollection that in the early days Australians also had to pay a to licence. Same sort of detecting vans too.

 

 

[facthunter]

Is a Morgan a car ? They used to race against sidecars. I'm talking about the 3 wheelers.

 

Those Commer vans were based on Hillman innards. Can a Commer come to a full stop? Yes sometimes. .Yes, you used to have a licenced for EACH radio in the land of the free and the brave. That sort of nonsense probably costs more to collect than it's worth .Nev

 

 

[philipnz]

Morgan 3 Wheelers are treated differently in different countries. In the some they are motorcycles, in others cars. In NZ they are cars but for tolls you pay motorcycle rates. I don't know if you can drive in bus-lanes but I must try.

 

We used to have TV licences in NZ but I don't recall vans like that. I know cars would drive around in the evening looking for aerials and flickers on curtains. I can recall ads saying that "Inspectors will be calling at houses not having a license" presumably after having a good listen at the walls.

 

 

[Yenn]

Inspectors did call and they interrogated my kids. Did we have a TV licence? No, no TV, but they then asked about radio and I got fined for no radio licence. That was 1970.

 

 

[facthunter]

Sad to hear. WE didn't have a TV either. They cost a fortune, even with no colour. Nev

 

 

[red750]

We didn't have a TV until long after I had left high school, we used to go to the neighbours to watch TV. When TV first came out, we lived at Deniliquin. I saw one on display in a store, the only people who could afford them were owners of large sheep stations. As there were no TV stations around, they needed antennas 60 odd feet high to get snowy reception. I was working when we got our first TV, and I rented it, it was a Singer TV, from the sewing machine company.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Is a Morgan a car ? They used to race against sidecars. I'm talking about the 3 wheelers.Those Commer vans were based on Hillman innards. Can a Commer come to a full stop? Yes sometimes. .Yes, you used to have a licenced for EACH radio in the land of the free and the brave. That sort of nonsense probably costs more to collect than it's worth .Nev

Morgan. . .lovely little cars ! not very practical in average UK weather though Nev. Long ago, during my dalliance with 'Pop' and rock music groups, the Commer van was the preferred means of getting the band around the country. . .It seemd like every group had one. They weere pretty reliable too, apart from the bodywork becoming detached from the chassis due to rot from road salt !

On the TV licence, in 2010 there were 25,459,000 TV licenses issued in the UK as a whole. At that time, the cost was £140.00 per annum per household. It increased in 2013 to £145.50 PA. The total aforementioned will have also increased, since the population has also increased by around 400,000 net since then, some of which will probably have a telly. The licence fee is not payable by people over 75 years of age, and there is a reduced fee for blind persons. The BBC have been whingeing at the Govt. for a long time to have the 'Over 75s' exemption removed ! !

 

Rather than costing more to administer than in makes, it is a magic money tree and it is easy to see why the BBC want to protect this enormous cash cow, and why they fritter away over £200,000 per year salaries ( more than the UK Prime Minister's salary ) on dozens and dozens of ' non-job 'Managers' with titles that no average person could understand. They also pay huge salaries to so-called 'Celebrity' people. . . They have also used this enormous income to spread their online presence locally and internationally often to the detriment of local press. There has been growing critism for a long time, and there is now a groundswell of 'civil disobedience' with many people refusing to pay, especially amongst those who also subscribe to sky netflix / amazon and other pay to view services.

 

 

[stickshaker]

TV license? What's this?

 

 

[Marty_d]

TV license? What's this?

Don't ask. Phil is having another rant against the BBC, on a site with mainly Australian users... I don't really get it either.

 

 

[Jaba-who]

TV license? What's this?

Are you seriously asking for an answer or is it a rhetorical question?Just in case you are asking a serious question. ( just ignore this if you aren't)

 

In the UK now and in Australia up to the 1970s ( as best I recall) you had to pay a licence fee to the government to own firstly a radio, and then when TVs came along to own a TV. No kidding - this was absolutely true.

 

They could detect the device by running around the streets in a van which had electronic gear in it that detected the electronic noise emitted by the inner workings of the device ( in those days all the devices were driven by glass valves that were noisey, and one of the stages that was used to return the electromagnetic radio wave to audio was a beat frequency oscillator and the BFO could be detected by the gear in the van. But it was also a dead give away if the lights were out and the flickering glow in the window looked like a TV was on.

 

Imagine the uproar of they tried that on here now! And how about if you don't watch the TV but watch all the same channels on your computer.

 

Addendum: Just had a Google and was shocked. About half of Europe still has TV licences. Some you have to pay even if you don't have a tv, but if you have an Internet connection which allows you to view TV content on-line ( some you pay a reduced fee in that case).

 

 

[planedriver]

In the UK you were normally made well aware by local media that the vans with the "spinning roof racks" as they were known, were about to hit the local area. I'm sure this was a ploy mainly used to terrorise people into buying a license.

 

I used to repair TV's in the shed at the bottom of the garden as a hobby. One day we had a knock at the door from the license guys and so I took then to the shed and showed them the insect zapper i'd made from using a line output transformer from one of the old tv's. They reckoned they'd detected it from the next street which would have been about 50yards away, but seemed impressed with what i'd made. They winked at each other and bid me goodnight. They never spotted the transmitter i'd built up as a pirate radio station to transmit pop music to my mates in the local area during the wee hours of the morning, or the radio-jammer in the picnic hamper which was sometimes taken to the beach to cure the noisey buggers who'd play there transistor radio's far too loud for comfort. Both of which were strictly-speaking illegal.

 

Back in those days our current Sydney DJ Bob Rogers who's now about 85 used to work on a pirate radio station on a ship which was anchored out in the English Channel, so I wasn't the only crook to come to Australia. Most came before me on sailing ships.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Don't ask. Phil is having another rant against the BBC, on a site with mainly Australian users... I don't really get it either.

Bang on mate. . . Extreme Anti-Beeb nutjob he is. . . . . ( Actually, this was aimed at older type Britflyer ex-pats Marty,. . who may remember the licence and the old vans. . .)

Apologies to all offfended Australians.

 

 

[stickshaker]

Pre 70s is a bit before my time.

 

Interesting and a bit stupid at the same time. So many existing mechanisms in place to collect tax, having yet another for 'TV licenses', big chunk gone just running and enforcing the thing.

 

Then again UK had basically no sport on free to air. Luckily didn't have time to watch much TV while I was there, as there wasn't much on! (Showing, anyway. Ashes were playing at the time)

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Pre 70s is a bit before my time.Interesting and a bit stupid at the same time. So many existing mechanisms in place to collect tax, having yet another for 'TV licenses', big chunk gone just running and enforcing the thing.

Then again UK had basically no sport on free to air. Luckily didn't have time to watch much TV while I was there, as there wasn't much on! (Showing, anyway. Ashes were playing at the time)

Beeb covers the Tennis, well, Wimbledon anyhow,. . and some cricket, some Formula one racing, but the real Good stuff, test matches etc, are all on payview. This includes most of the best football stuff too. This is fair enough, if you want a sports package, with decent coverage, then it isn't a terrible thing to pay for it. There are various payview packages available for whatever sport you like.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Are you seriously asking for an answer or is it a rhetorical question?Just in case you are asking a serious question. ( just ignore this if you aren't)

In the UK now and in Australia up to the 1970s ( as best I recall) you had to pay a licence fee to the government to own firstly a radio, and then when TVs came along to own a TV. No kidding - this was absolutely true.

 

They could detect the device by running around the streets in a van which had electronic gear in it that detected the electronic noise emitted by the inner workings of the device ( in those days all the devices were driven by glass valves that were noisey, and one of the stages that was used to return the electromagnetic radio wave to audio was a beat frequency oscillator and the BFO could be detected by the gear in the van. But it was also a dead give away if the lights were out and the flickering glow in the window looked like a TV was on.

 

Imagine the uproar of they tried that on here now! And how about if you don't watch the TV but watch all the same channels on your computer.

 

Addendum: Just had a Google and was shocked. About half of Europe still has TV licences. Some you have to pay even if you don't have a tv, but if you have an Internet connection which allows you to view TV content on-line ( some you pay a reduced fee in that case).

My Mate Goaty in France tells me that their TV licence fee is paid as part of their general housing rates ( Sort of Council Tax if you've lived in Britain in the last 15 years or so ) but they don't like it either, as the French National news service is heavily censored and narrative controlled. . . ( Now, where have I heard that before. . .) A friend who has posted here before ( polardroid ) lives in Sweden, where a similar levy is placed upon all householders, whether they own a TV or not,. . .the censorship there has to be seen to be believed apparently but that's a story for 'Off Topic'

 

 

[Jaba-who]

Getting onto censorship etc

 

In oz we have a funny system.

 

No tv licences but the ABC ( our version of BBC) is paid for by the tax payer out of general revenues.

 

But the ABC is incredibly biased and very left leaning. Some of the reporters and journos are Labour Party members with quite high profiles in the party and one even went to contest and unseat our recent conservative prime minister.

 

Their bias is legendary but attempts by the conservatives to rein in the very obvious biased Labour Party use of tax payers money is howled down and very vocally fought here. Not the slightest chance of any censorship happening to the ABC here.

 

 

[Marty_d]

But the ABC is incredibly biased and very left leaning.

Actually, it's not.

This is an absolute lie propagated by the conservative LNP party.

 

Every time there's howls of "bias" from the right, independent studies prove that there is absolutely no bias in ABC reporting or interviewing. Equal time is given to each side of politics. Politicians from each side are treated with respect (in most cases, more than they're due).

 

The ABC only seems left-leaning when compared to most of the Rupert-owned news outlets, which are so far to the right that they make the centre look left.

 

 

[frank marriott]

"there is absolutely no bias in ABC reporting or interviewing"

 

Really? I never thought I would see anyone actually allege that! Whatever their personal political views might be.

 

 

[2tonne]

You never hear the centre/left bleating about media bias, despite Rudd/Gillard/Shorten copping it in the media just as much as any conservative politician. I think the conservatives are a bit thin-skinned. Like to call a spade a spade, but don't like it in return.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Getting onto censorship etcIn oz we have a funny system.

No tv licences but the ABC ( our version of BBC) is paid for by the tax payer out of general revenues.

 

But the ABC is incredibly biased and very left leaning. Some of the reporters and journos are Labour Party members with quite high profiles in the party and one even went to contest and unseat our recent conservative prime minister.

 

Their bias is legendary but attempts by the conservatives to rein in the very obvious biased Labour Party use of tax payers money is howled down and very vocally fought here. Not the slightest chance of any censorship happening to the ABC here.

Just in case you were serious in making these extreme claims Jaba, it should be pointed out that BOTH sides of politics, when in power have cut ABC budgets, and ABC journos have also been elected as Liberal Party MPs.You may be right about many ABC journos being a little to the left, but where else would they keep their job and maintain their professional integrity? Most of our media is blatantly far to the right, and shows little regard for professional standards.

 

The ABC Board has been heavily loaded with proper right wing people by Liberal Governments and the ABC provides comprehensive media analysis (eg. Media Watch, Fact Check) that often finds fault with the left side of politics and the ABC itself.

 

Compared to the Murdoch empire. Yes, the ABC is left wing. Thank the great creator in the sky for that!

 

 

[spacesailor]

Censorship :

 

The BBC and all radio/ TV are censored. Full stop.

 

When a clip from the Locherbie disaster accidentally when to air, also repeated on the radio.

 

A bum lodged on a roof, the radio announcer said ( part of a human torso) he was on the dole smart quick.

 

You never see the pools of blood after a massacre. ( not that I care, but it make life unrealistic)

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Soleair]

Beeb covers the Tennis, well, Wimbledon anyhow,. . and some cricket, some Formula one racing

Channel 4 has the TV coverage of F1 these days. Beeb just do radio.

Personally, I'd pay 300 bucks a year over here to avoid the dreadful rural TV adverts. They're like something out of 1960's cinema ads!

 

 

[skeptic36]

[Phil Perry]

Channel 4 has the TV coverage of F1 these days. Beeb just do radio.Personally, I'd pay 300 bucks a year over here to avoid the dreadful rural TV adverts. They're like something out of 1960's cinema ads!

One thing I noticed about Australia was that it's rather BIG. . . so I guess that Some advertising needs to be more targeted / localised. I watch anything of interest on catch-up, and buzz thru any adverts, most of which seem to be aimed at 9 or 10 year olds anyway. I DO like to watch the TV advertising awards around Christmas time though, most of the really funny / clever ones seem to be made in Brazil or Germany. . .

 

I offered Aunty Beeb £25 per year, just to watch 'The Sky at Night' good astronomy prog, but it is only screened on one night monthly. They didn't write back.