The abhorrent part to an American is that someone from the Government has the right to enter your personal abode, without a warrant, to check something as trivial as "are you watching TV?" We don't let the IRS enter someone's property even if they owe millions in back-taxes without a court-order. I mean you guys *fought* Nazis right?
You been keeping up with the news about the NSA? ;-)
It's never been clear to me whether TV Licensing Ltd have this power or how it would work. The police need a warrant to enter and search. TV Licensing is a private company, so have pretty much no power to do anything but send shirty letters and should need a court order. Ah, here we go...the rules: http://www.televisionlicence.info/tvl/inspectors