What is it about media that causes governments - OK, apparently just our government here in the UK - to abandon its normal, very sensible objection to hypothecated taxation? What indeed is it about media that makes a poll tax look like a good idea? First the BBC, now music, it seems that media (especially digital media) is exempt from the common sense that saves us from this bizarre approach to filling the public purse.
The BBC is currently funded by the country's only hypothecated poll tax - a flat fee levied per head of population, irrespective of ability to pay, to meet a specific government spending objective. Rumours abound again today that the music industry is pushing for similarly special dispensation (though Charles at the Guardian thinks not). Both our current and our last Prime Minister agree that hypothecation is a bad idea (I don't think either has ever though it necessary to come out explicitly against poll taxes). So why this single exception for media? Very strange.
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