Since launching last August the Campaign to Abolish the TV Licence has received over 200,000 online pledges not to pay as of the beginning of December. That is pretty good going for a new and unfunded grassroots campaign.

In 1930 in order to help free India from British control, Mahatma Gandhi proposed a non-violent march protesting the British Salt Tax, continuing Gandhi’s pleas for civil disobedience. The Salt Tax essentially made it illegal to sell or produce salt, allowing a complete British monopoly. Since salt is necessary in everyone’s daily diet, everyone in India was affected. The Salt Tax made it illegal for workers to freely collect their own salt from the coasts of India, making them buy salt they couldn’t really afford. The British Broadcasting Corporation’s TV Tax protects an unjust monopoly, since television is necessary for information it affects everyone in Britain. It makes it illegal to freely receive information without paying the TV Tax. Information which is essential for civil society and democracy to function. The TV Tax can be defeated – on April 5, 1930 Gandhi and his satyagrahis reached the sea coast. After prayers were offered, Gandhi spoke to the large crowd. He picked up a tiny lump of salt in his hand, breaking the law. In that moment India’s freedom from colonialism was secured. In Charles Moore the British people have their Gandhi.

Mass civil disobedience is as easy as canceling your direct debit, then pick up your Sky remote in your hand, break the law. By this small act freedom from cultural domination by a left-wing metropolitan elite can be secured. If Gandhi was the quintessential Indian, Charles Moore is surely the quintessential Englishman. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Pledge not to pay here.