1971: SCARBOROUGH Residents' Bizarre "WINDOW TAX" | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- "Under the law of this land, an owner of property is entitled to receive light only from perpendicularly above his property. He's not entitled, as a matter of right, to receive light laterally."
Nationwide's Bob Langley visits Commercial Street, Scarborough, to report on a rather unusual situation involving the street residents, British Rail and the rather arcane law of "ancient lights".
Originally broadcast 30 March, 1971.
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I've heard some bollocks in my time, but this is possibly the biggest load of em lmao
Close, carbon tax.
If the light was coming from British Rail then given how efficiently they ran the trains the light was probably taking several months to get from the rail yard to the window.
What an unbelievably absurd argument by the then British Rails !!
It's a mad world 🌎 😅😮😢
These days we have a tax for living in a dwelling - council tax.
So a company behaving like a bully to extract money from pensioners by abusing a law in a way it wasn’t intended to be used then stupidly trying to justify it on national television. I wonder if after this was exposed something happened about it?
Sounds like something the mayor of London would do.
To be fair, this sounds like SOMETHING COMMON in Britain today.
This has got to be the biggest scam in history
I'm surprised they didn't charge for the air and rain water, also the privilege of smelling and consuming their pollution from the trains.
Apparently the water companies in Alabama in the States tried to get people banned from collecting rainwater,the greedy ba$tards!
There was a case of a UK pub who collected rainwater and was off grid and the local water company tried to say that any water falling from the sky was theirs.
Well do you know the Australian government, particularly the Victorian government, 3 TIMES NOW has tried to charge farmers for their rainwater?!! The attitude is like as though our farms are covered in plastic film, every DROP that we store in dams/ponds is one drop STOLEN from water catchment. It is like they can't even comprehend that the SOIL soaks up water. Like I said, 3 TIMES they've tried this crap. Just in case farming isn't a near bankrupt industry to begin with.... owning a farm I can confirm there's no money in farming. Not even with 1000 acres.
Oh dear, oh dear.......British rail wouldn't want their enormous wooden shed to 'have an unfortunate accident' would they? 🤣
I don't remember this episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
And today the residents have the privilege of receiving their light from a Sainsbury's Supermarket!
Are they charged for it?
@@stephenspence1192 I very much doubt it, but you never know.
And there I was prepared to pay a premium for my view to be upgraded to herds of wildeest sweeping gracefully across the Serengheti.
I always this was a joke from Blackadder, but yet again truth is stranger than fiction....
"Stamp duty, window tax, swamp insurance, hen food, dog biscuits, cow ointment. The list is endless."
Window tax was a real thing between the late 17th and mid 19th century. You paid tax based on how many windows your house had, it replaced income tax and was intended to be a progressive tax because it was assumed the richer you were the bigger your house would be, the more windows it would have and therefore the more you'd pay.
What we see in the video isn't a window tax per-se, it's just British Rail absolutely taking the piss.
Window tax. Swamp insurance. Hen food. Dog biscuits. Cow ointment. The expenses are endless.
Window tax was a thing in the Middle Ages.
@@rjjcms1 well that’s me enlightened 😂
Salt tax in France helped toward the Revolution.
Did Mr Burns run British rail back then?
I think it was young Mr.Grace
Basically, turning neighbours' potential objections to expansions blocking their views and access to clean air etc. by charging them not to do so; putting the "tort" into extortion!
They now look onto a Sainsbury’s, you need a nectar card for the light
😂
Good old fashioned British extortion. No different today.
This is nuts, was this filmed on April 1 😂
That was the spaghetti tree.
Could they not charge British rail for the other way round?
Yes, they actually have to pay each other.... Under his BR logic
Soooo... one part of my brain is thinking April Fools, but another is thinking how this is similar to the very real "buying the air space" above a neighbour's building so that they cannot build upwards and block your view.
I dunno. 🤔
It was window tax that caused a massive uprising in the UK against the Royal government when the taxes were so out of hand that window tax depending upon the view and light was the final straw and forced the government at the time or king to make immediate change!
I THINK they are trying to avoid a situation in which they want to put up a shed, and planning permission is denied because the shed would block someone’s light.
So they rent the light and as a result the homeowners admit they don’t have a right to it.
Yep. Only became clear half-way thro the video.
Amazon Windows°, Coming soon!
It’s basically a payment to stop British Rail building whatever they want on their land.
The OG click bait journalism, nonsense claims about BR owning the light, minimal effort to explain the actual issue or it's ramifications to each side of the arrangement.
One of the most ridiculous things I've heard of! I hope it's long since abolished!
Terrible, the railways having their light reduced by others 'stealing' it from them. I think these days you would have to prove 'loss' and that wouldn't stand up in court. Its a bit like the ridiculous charge made on consumers (which still exists) for water that runs off their roof. Even if you divert the whole lot into rain butts, you STILL get charged for runoff.
هل من المعقول وجود مثل تلك الرسوم والضرائب ؟!!!
هل بإمكانك أخباري عن ضرائب أو رسوم مثل ذلك النوع ؟
The Britain Reform wants to take us back to. Lovely.
lmao, you cannot be serious
Looked at the broadcast date, thinking it was an April Fool.
If BR provide the light, then surely the residents would be bathed in sunlight during the night, too. This would never hold up in court.
There's me thinking it was GOD that gave us all light ( and for free ! )
Divine retribution incoming.
Excuse me, WOT?! What the devil is this nonsensical tax?
I sincerely hope it was reviewed and thrown where it belongs since then.
Àrchaic clumsy and unjust .The rather plumby voiced chap representing British Rail should be ashamed of doing an interview to explain such baffling legalistic detail
...grabbed me popcorn, can't wait to go through the comments.
Ludicrous!
Did I just watch a Monty python sketch
That's Preposterous
It sounds to me like British Railways was trying to protect themselves from another law that said something like "if a property receives lightfrom another property, the owner of the property is not allowed to build or obstruct the passage of that light. Hence they made the property owners either lease the right to the light, in which case British Railways could not renew the lease if they decided to build a neighboring property that would obstruct that light, or they would purposefully block the light every 25 years, to make the time period shorter than what the law required, hence invalidating the property owners claim against British Railway if they ever built and obstructed the light. In other words, it sounds to me like the reporters are conveniently being silent about the real reason why British Railways chose to to this, but instead made a smear piece on British Railways, omitting vital context and taking their words out of context in order to fuel outrage and hate and get themselves more popular.
No it's just a case of a British Rail lawyer talking codswhallop to play down bad press.
There was an archaic local government law in Scarborough which had residents paying a trivial sum for uninterrupted views over the rail yards that they decided to use as a revenue maker.
Scarborough is the British Labor Party heartland and when this story broke they were on it in a flash.
@@stevebuckley7788 Ah, well I was just speculating, because it seemed that the words of the British Rail lawyer were saying something to that effect
while it sounds stupid, there is an actual logic to it. If British Rail did nothing, then it would make expanding the site vertically in the future impossible if they where over the 20 year limit, the received 'light' would be given protection under the law.
So basically they have the option charge a nominal fee or interupt that 20 year period by temporarily placing a structure that blocks it
So by doing this , they deny the residents any future legal objection by saying i've had free unterupted light for 20 years, it legally correct it can continue
Tory HQ will have watched that and thought " brilliant idea!"
new tory tax idea
Reminds me of an abstract concept in economics which I read in Paul Sameulson's chapters on comparing utility or utils derived from consuming different products, which is included in his standard textbook, studied by millions of econ students at the undergraduate level, around the world.
It is the PARADOX OF VALUE.
For. e,g. Diamonds are of little value to a thirsty traveller who needs to drink water constantly during the summer heat in the Sub-Saharan desert region.
So water has a higher utility!
Similarly, to the British, daylight hours are precious, which is why it's being treated as a luxury commodity, not as a natural resource, which is available in abundance.
Hence, sunlight is being taxed!? And those using it without paying a tax are described as free riders. hmm.. interesting.
There was a cupboard in that depot with a sign that said make sure nothing can fall out before opening the doors
Was this broadcast on the first of April by any chance ?
The residents paid 2'/6 and there was light...
Government doing Government things......
😂
*'declare the pennies on your eyes ...'*
Nothing particularly great about that view ! I should n't pay
Was this an April Fool? Beggars belief.
Rip off then rip off now every new years day the train fee's go up never missing a year.
wow lol scumbags have always been scummy i guess
So people in 1971 were dumb!
Must be April fool.
Is this an April Fools?
Are you SURE the original date of broadcast WASN'T on 1st April 1971.......???! 🤔😱🤣😂🤭🤭👌
I bet Sadiq Khan is watching this and feverishly making notes
He wants to take us back to the good old days when men wore hats and ladies wore gloves, you mean?
Very sensible
When I was a boy, I remember seeing a piece of graffiti on a factory wall, as we drove past in my dad's truck.
It said, "POLITICIANS", in rather darkly coloured paint.
I asked my dad, "Politicians... What does *that* mean?"
He didn't flinch, but solemnly replied, "You'll understand, one day."
If you've never heard one before, this is the kind of thing they sometimes say (from 2:38) when trying to justify the unjustifiable.
I always thought Scarborough was a tuppeny hapenny place. Population: 3 mangey cows, a datschund named Colin....and a small hen, in it's late 40's.
Imagine a stateowned company doing this... oh, wait, this railcompany is stateowned.
Typical Labour party taxes through British Rail.
new tory tax to pay for HS2
Ted Heath and the Conservatives were in power when this was filmed.
Mean, by all accounts this isn't a british rail thing it dates back beyond nationalised railways so this actually started with the private sector not labour or british rail.
Can I some more coal dust and whistles instead sir