SIR - TV licensing is, generally speaking, a mute point with the British public.

Because the Government-backed BBC's annual price rises are considered to be the norm, it is felt generally that while we are free to complain, we realise there is very little we can do to change it so we accept it.

I would estimate that only 10 per cent - if that - of my viewing time is spent watching BBC stations. However I still have to pay the annually increasing £131 TV license to the BBC, which is an insidious and invasive tax Chucking my TV in the bin is not an answer because TV Licensing has that covered. As you can see in the following passage taken from their website: "You need a TV licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top boxes, video or DVD recorders, computers or mobile phones to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV."

So the only way to avoid a TV license is to take up the gypsy life or become a hermit, taking care to discard your hearing aid, which could be adapted to become a TV receiver.

Petty and ridiculous you might think, well try this. While attending a special needs college my son had his own room within his house parent's private house. The house parents paid for their own TV license. The one aerial was shared by the house parents and the three other students, totalling four TV sets. The total amount of tax, for want of a better word, was more than £500. The anomaly lay in the fact that I could have a TV in every room in my house and only pay for one TV license. Doesn't this smack of greed?

Even the over 75s, who get a free licence, find themselves watching the same episodes of Dad's Army, The Good Life, Open All Hours and Porridge they watched 20-25 years ago, and when Arkwright stutters because he can't remember his script you have watched it so often that you can prompt him.

In four years time and you'll have to pay £150 for the same rubbish.

Richard W. Brown, Malvern.