@ Lee D
Why should you pay for schools if all your kids are grown up?....et al
Your examples are all essential services mostly provided or regulated by a monopoly provider. Independent provision exists in some of your examples but (as you well know) that isn't for the same universal, free at point of use service.
And that's why your argument is rubbish - the Beeb don't do anything that is or requires a natural monopoly, they provide regulation, they don't manage the transmission monopoly, and (no matter what you claim about the "quality" of the Beeb) there are independent broadcasters of good quality. And unlike those services that are tax funded, the Beeb is not free at point of use. You pay if you use the service, (along with a minority who don't use it, but are unfortunate enough to be caught in the scope of "owning and using a TV, or watching iPlayer"). But it is a selective tax - it can be legally avoided, unlike the unhypothecated taxes that go to (say) streetlighting or education, and so it isn't really "free at point of use".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
