Richard Baum

I’m back from Christmas excess now, although with eight tons of chocolate and thirty bags of crisps in the house I don’t think the excess itself will stop with my return.

I read a blog post by a fellow Lib Dem Councillor, James Barber, today. It was about the digital switchover and the money we all have to pay for new equipment. James calls it a regressive tax and I have to say that I share some of his concerns. We are being forced by the government to pay for set top boxes or new TVs (or Sky) whether we want to or not. Now there is the odd town in the country where analogue TV just won’t work any more. By 2012 it won’t work anywhere.

I am as much in favour of progress as the next guy, don’t get me wrong. It’s not digital TV itself that I object to (although most of it is rubbish. But then, even digital TVs have “off” switches). Apparently it’s a leap forward in picture quality, not that I can tell the difference. And by flogging the analogue frequencies we’ll make lots of money for the treasury. Great.

What I object to is another example of the government’s casual disregard of the people of this country, and their interference in our lives without giving us a say.

I was never asked whether I wanted digital TV. The government saw the opportunity to flog off the analogue signals, and away they went. Were we asked? Was there a consultation? Were we given the chance to have our say and point out the potential flaws? No.

And now some people are getting into difficulties. The “regressive tax” argument is fading away for set top boxes themselves. They’re just a tenner now from Tesco. But even with the boxes, if come 2012 millions still don’t have them then it’ll be a big problem which may fall to Councils to pay for if the government won’t.

And there are other problems - my VCR won’t work in these new digital times. That’s a new one, which has been publicised a lot recently. It’s a bit better for DVD players (only “some” won’t work), but why the hell are government making my VCR and DVD players obsolete?? Where can I get my refund?

Where can I get my new TV with the second SCART socket to plug in both the set top box and the new digital recorder? I have a perfectly good TV thanks, so are you going to pay for it Mr Brown? It isn’t very environmentally friendly is it? Chucking out these good TVs?

I am OK. I can afford Sky and I’m going to get a shiny new TV. But the elderly and those on lower incomes may have a problem. And we should have thought about this before we started.

Digital has lots of potential, and we should embrace it. But yet again the government has missed the opportunity to sign up everyone by rushing things, not talking to us, and leaving us all feeling a bit dizzy with the pace of a change lots don’t actually want.

Rick