As of 2006, the licence fee *is* considered a tax.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldbbc/128/128i.pdf

"Parliament and not Government should set the level of the licence fee. In January 2006, the Office of National Statistics classified the licence fee as a tax for the first
time. We are very concerned about the consequences that this decision will have for the BBC’s independence."

No, Concorde *was* really loud. I used to live around 40 miles west of Heathrow, under the flightpath of Concorde. I don't know what speed an altitude Concorde was doing at that point (40 miles gives it a reasonable margin after takeoff to gain some height and speed) but twice a day, inside buildings, conversation would stop because the noise of Concorde drowned out the conversation. Unless you wanted to start shouting at each other.

Live preview is also immensely useful for composing shots on the tripod, without having to bend down to the level of the view finder. On my Canon EOS 7D it can also be able to used to do a really quite good estimation of exposure (I do a lot of shots in manual mode).