"The BBC isn't the government. It's a corporation with its own management and board of governors."

The senior executive and the board of governers are directly appointed by the government. The BBC is established under Royal Charter.

"The licence fee..."

The existence of which is by statute, the level of which is set by the government, the collection of which is enforced by statute...

"...is a flat fee that pays for all BBC broadcasts (including the World Service -- much valued in countries whose own broadcasters actually are arms of government)".

The BBC World Service is funded by direct taxation and administered the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/faq/news/story/2005/08/050810_wsfunding.shtml

"It isn't a tax..."

Correct, it is a licence - legal permission from the state to install and use television reception equipment.

But rather delightfully, the Office for National Statistics has, for accounting purposes, redefined the licence as a tax. Poor old Gordon's sums are now toward the red by nearly 3 billion. Note also how the BBC has been reclassified as "Central Government":
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/cpst0106.pdf

"Of course if someone's ideologically anti-taxation it's a waste of time arguing..."

Didn't you just say it isn't a tax? ;-)

"There are plenty of (privately-owned) media people who dislike the BBC licence, and the BBC in general, because they see its size, range and popularity as a threat to their own money-making plans..."

Dirty, filthy little money makers. Of course, many people having to earn a living and fund businesses do see the BBC as a gross interference in the free market. It is.

Unfortunately, these same broadcast people are also terrified at the prospect of a privatised BBC absorbing an already over-thin UK advertising market. Ironically, it is in the short term financial interests of the dirty, filthy little money makers to retain the licence. Otherwise they'd have got shot of it years ago.

"However, whether you own a TV or not, you still have to pay for advert-funded TV, since advertisers recoup their promotional expenditure by passing on the cost to the people who buy their products (do I really have to explain such an obvious fact?)"

Do you really feel that such an obvious fact is somehow relevant as mitigation for a government licence to watch the telly? Companies advertise their products and services all over the place; advertising makes their products and services commercially viable. It's all part of what makes the economic world go 'round. . No economy = no public sector taxes.

"How do I avoid paying mystery-money for advert-funded TV I rarely watch? I actually, seriously do object to that."

You know what? Some taxi drivers give money to political parties. Everytime you take a cab you might be paying mystery-money to a party you disappove of. Oh, the horror.

LOL. If we get rid of the BBC, we'll have to have a go at the government schools next. They are producing citizens with an entirely warped sense of reality.