Exactly right and extremely worrying. We have been prepped for this 1984 lifestyle since the banning of private gun ownership (that's only half joking). But it creates no end of parasite "jobs", and so grateful NuLab voters. I expect it to get much worse

Joe K, London, UK

On a serious point, can we have some realistic suggestions as to how we can in fact stop this, things like it and the Orwellian creep into our lives. The politicians seem to be deaf to concerns and even seem to actually encourage it. Is direct action really the only way? If it is, where do we start?

Jim, Herts,

We get too many adverts on the BBC already !!!!!!

How could they justify any more.

For all it faults the TV licence is still reasonable value for money, JUST DO NOT SHOW ANY MORE ADVERTS, we are all sick to death of them.

LJS, EDINBURGH, Scotland

I frequently post on the BBC's own messageboard on the subject of TVL's behaviour - particularly the threatening letters which they have sent for years that tell you to phone a "line that charges a premium" It used to be 0870 but they seem now to have watered it down to 0845.

al bore, Bournemouth,

I would the most ernestly sugest that you or any one look back and seriolsy consider the words of Winston Churchill in the election after the war.When he said "IN THE END they(socilaists)will resort to gestapo methods....."We may not be yet at the end but we are certainly at the begining of the end

Gerald Blezard, london, uk

I wonder how much the advertising costs. Which could lead me to the cost of BBC channel rebranding - though there is an argument that it is standard commercial practice to use a proportion of revenue to market product with the aim of influencing consumer purchasing choice - if we had a choice.

AH, Weybridge, UK

A TV used with a DVD player does not need a licence either....

ABBY GRANT, London/Hammersmith, UK

It is about time this dinosaur was put to rest and the liberal/left who love it so much paid for it via subscription instead of expecting everyone else to subsidise it for them!

John, Salford, England

The correspondance to a property without a licence states "the only sure way to avoid prosecution is to purchase a valid TV licence before an Enforcement Officer's visit." You'd think that not owning a TV (or set top box, PC, mobile etc) would be sufficient.

AH, Weybridge, UK

Are the internet ads (on the National Rail enquiries website, for instance) not 'paid for' nor subject to ASA jurisdiction?

AH, Weybridge, UK

I've not had a TV for 6 years. It's like detox: everything is so much clearer as I use the internet now and I CHOOSE what I want to see and hear.

Capita/TVLA wouldn't listen when I wrote to them telling them this.... so I removed their right of access (under common English Law). Problem solved.

Anthony, Manchester, UK

These ludicrously sinister ads claim TV Licensing know which addresses don't have licences. Not true. Both times I've bought TVs I've received unpleasantly-worded letters telling me they've no record of a licence in my name at my address, just because the licence is in my husband's (different) name.

Fiona, London,

What on earth is Mr Kemmish talking about? Whether you like the Adam Smith Institute or not, it is independently funded unlike the BBC, which is paid for by a tax on everyone with a TV. So pot/kettle/black has no place in this debate. I agree with Dr Butler - it is a horrible totalitarian advert.

David Shipley, Harpenden, Herts

Surely it is obvious that this kind of approach is both endorsed by the population (the language of " benefit scroungers") and necessitated by a deeply pessimistic view of mankind as constantly on the fiddle. Somewhat depressing but primarily societal not governmental.

Jonathan M Smith, Edinburgh, UK

It distresses me is that I didn't even notice it until it was pointed out to me in this article.

The topic isn't really the issue at all is it? It's the fact that some jumped up little bureaucrat thinks it is ok to make an advert like this.

Who told them it is ok to appear like the Stazi?

Damian, Manchester,

I wrote to TV Licensing in Dec 03 stating (truthfully) that I had given up TV (which they acknowledged). Since then I've had 34 letters and 4 home visits. One of my reasons for voting against Labour is that I dont like being harassed by a profit driven PLC.

tim makepeace, leeds,

Butler need not worry - TV Licensing's database won't tell them who is not on there. They are after IT illiterates who might get scared at the word "database". This is big brother at its daftest.

Kevin Straw, Leicester,

It's not just the TV licencing people. You can't go to a railway station without being nagged to death via the tannoy about the evils of smoking, rollerblading, cycling and leaving luggage lying around. Not to mention the fact that 24hour security patrol the area, and, surprise, you are on CCTV.

Michael, Liverpool, UK

Well said. It is horrifying to see such adverts, without a murmur of complaint from the political classes. No such adverts could run in any state with political freedom.

Roger, Ipswich,

Eamonn, you have written the article that I have had on my 'to do' list since I first saw this advert. And it's almost as good as the one I would have written.

Mike Poulsen, Reading, Berkshire

Play them at their own game.

Firstly write a nice letter advising TV Licensing that you no longer watch TV, instead using your TV to simply watch your collection of dvd's. Secondly, politelty insist that all future demands for TV licence renewal desist immediately.

Magically, end of problem.

Mr No TV for me., North West, Big Brother UK.

Well you'd have to wonder about an organisation that used a sub-cretinous talking settee anyway. And if they have a database of all our addresses and know which of us don't have a licence why do they need this nonsense anyway?Shunting licence payers' money to some boyfriend's film company probably.

eric campbell, harrogate, uk

There is also the "We will crush your car" advert for car tax evasion. On the way from the office the other day I saw, parked by the side of the road complete with CCTV camera, a Camden Council "Public Enforcement Unit". Civil disobedience required to remind the state who they work for!!!!

Matt, London, UK

I have received 'threatening' letters on a monthly basis for 9 years now. I refuse to respond because to do would cost me money. Besides, it's much more fun seeing Capita waste their cash and I certainly hope they will go to the expense of exercising their oft-repeated threat to visit me one day.

Chris W, Kendal,

So subsidising the BBC other than by advertising is bad, subsidising the Adam Smith Institute is good? Your employer, unlike the BBC, has never produced anything worth a damn and you know it.

Time for that six word National Motto again: "The pot calling the kettle black."

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

I thoroughly disagree with Dr Butler's suggestion to allow the infiltration of commercials (spam!) into the Beeb. It is a unique institution funded by a unique means. It would be a sad loss to British civilisation to forego it. But I do agree that it disgraces itself with the Orwellian tactics.

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

I seem to remember a cartoon in Punch years ago of a man saying to the TV Licence inspector, "Of course it's last year's. You're always showing last year's programmes"

David Probert, St. Albans, Herts, United Kingdom

Dr Butler's point is well made. However, I wonder whether he has had the benefit of seeing the correspondence which is issued when a property ceases to hold a licence? I would commend it to him: the threats contained in such correspondence are relentless and unnecessarily intimidating.

Colin Ashley, Cumbria,

I reported this advertising campaign to the ASA 6 months ago for precisely the reasons you describe. Their response was PATHETIC. They told me thet they had 'reviewed the advertisements and found nothing sufficiently offensive about them to warrant further action'.

Roddy Campbell, Christchurch, New Zealand

This morning I followed a line of cars crawling, at a deferential 20mph, up a wide dual carriageway with a 30 mph limit and a known fixed speed camera. The reason was plain: an ostentatiously-parked police van with, on the side, the soothing words"Public Reassurance Unit". We know our place...

Gill, Southampton, UK

If you don't have a TV then they still write. Again and again and again, with thinly veiled threats. It's harassment and it's technically illegal. In the New Labour era of mendacious application of rules to the letter, why hasn't Capita been given an ASBO?

Kay Tie, York,

Yes, and it's time that the Advertising Standards Authority stopped hiding behind the figleaf that it only vets 'paid for' advertisements and confronted the arrogant and bloated monster that the BBC has become.

Bernard, Norwich, Norfolk