"Have you got a loicense for that TV?!"
I’m sure you know this by now, but your pal Jimbo lives under what the yanks would consider a quasi-police state in the used-to-be Great Isles of Britain.
A letter arrived today that reminded me just how much I loathe authority of any kind, and exactly why I started building my own business in the first place…
To get as far away from people telling me what to do as possible.
In the UK, we have a quaint and antiquated system known as the ‘TV licence’. Originally, the TV licence was to fund the British Broadcasting Company back when there were three channels, no adverts, and you watched in black and white or not at all.
Unfortunately, today this has essentially become an entertainment tax which, if you pay, directly funds the propaganda wing of the British guvment… which, in case you haven’t been paying attention, is not particularly popular these days.
You won’t be surprised to learn that I have never used their services whatsoever, have never paid for the TV licence, and never will. And I’m not the only one. Many are beginning to realise there’s no point in having a TV licence, seeing as you can get faster news from social media, and anything else you can watch on demand.
They say you need a TV licence if you watch or record live TV on any channel, service, or device, or through online services (e.g., YouTube Live). Talk about vague overreach. Imagine needing to pay Google to use Amazon.
If caught without a licence, you can be prosecuted and fined up to £1,000, plus potential legal costs and compensation. Yes, before you ask, people have seriously gone to prison in this country for not having a licence to watch TV.
Now I’m sure you’re thinking… If you don’t have a TV, you don’t have a problem.
Unfortunately, you’d be wrong.
Because the TV Licensing GESTAPO regularly write the most sinisterly ambiguous, deliberately confusing, and downright threatening letters to you if you say you don’t need a licence.
There is no choice to opt out. There is no choice for you not to be on their records. They hound me and others like me, constantly asking when you plan to get a TV licence and to let them know if you move. If you don’t respond, they say they will assume you need a licence and will begin treating you as unlicensed.
To be unlicensed is a fate worse than death in the eyes of the BBC, completely justifying their escalating letters designed to intimidate. They threaten visits to your home from their “officers”, who have zero power, but never seem to have gotten the memo.
Anyway, this email is running long. It’s honestly crazy to see how organisations that don’t have to win business act these days. Compare a provider of something you’re legally obligated to purchase vs even the least customer-focused private company… night and day. You should see the wording on some of these letters I get.
But it does raise a good point… which is that your language and vocab choices can make a huge difference to your conversions… and typically, most people aren’t obsessed enough with word selection, sentence construction, and tone of voice to notice if there are clangers in there, turning people all the way off.
If you have copy that isn’t doing what you need it to, then have no fear.
Go here for a little help from your old pal Jimmy:
James Perkins
