British Broadband

I think I put football club owners on a whole other list a little while ago!

 

The statement that Corbyn will bankrupt the country is well on schedule
So many older people will not have broadband but make them pay for water

 

I think if are going down the route of nationalising things, broadband would be way down my priority list. I personally like the choice of being able to select my own internet provider

 

As you now need broadband to access government services, should the government provide a basic broadband connection to all homes and allow customers the choice to pay for a better/faster service or one with extra functionality?

 

When BT was privatised the infrastructure of the time was in place. This allowed them to reap in massive profits (records for the time I believe) by simply running the business and cutting costs, namely not investing in the infrastructure and making thousands of workers redundant. It was only years later when they realised they needed to update things and actually invest some money, but by then the original management had long since taken their bonuses and shareholders their dividends and profits.

 

Erm, the point of a manifesto is that you say what you'll do if you win an election. Then you do those things. So I fail to see how Labour are missing that?

The policies are moderate - in line with how things are managed in a host of European countries. They aren't saying they're going to nationalise all broadband but take BT part into public ownership and that's as far as it'd go. When BT have a monopoly on so much of the infrastructure it makes sense.

Excuse me if I don't weep over shareholders or the pension pots they affect. I'm in my 30s, I have 0 savings despite having worked in degree-level jobs all my life and the most I own in terms of property is my guitar amp. Free broadband would give me the ability to put that money I save back into the economy - support small business by buying more or hopefully save to get on the housing ladder. I might finally even be able to pay into my own pension pot. That is all beneficial and that flow of cash supports a healthy economy.

Neoliberalism has failed us, that's clear. Things need rebalancing in favour of ordinary people. This Labour leadership are the first in my lifetime to try and do that and it gives me hope.

 

Pity we can't have sliding doors moments and see what Openreach would be now if it hadn't been privatised and the broadband market didn't have competition.

My perception of openreach is its a mess. A bit like RailTrack is. So i'm certainly not wedded to anything we have now. To be fair, much of what we have as infrastructure is pretty poor and inept, whether public or private. Maybe its a cultural thing in the UK?

The elephant in the room is to privatise so many industries en masse... we have to be out of the EU.

Combine Brexit with this seismic anti business shift and the damage could make the last recession look pleasurable in comparison.

Not that it matters, its just yet more ideology playing to the same audience again, diluting wider appeal and reducing Labour vote share.

 

Well said owd lad (or should I say not so old).

 

My main point being they won't win an election though.

 

Broadband could easily be transmitted like the digital TV is, transmitters are there. Any policy Labour come up with is automatically costing 40 billion from people eager to maintain their cashcows. Don't believe the hype

 

That's another problem - Virgin Media laid the fibre optic cables around here totally separate from the BT lines.
We have a BT line and a Virgin Media cable into our house.Virgin Media and its previous guises (Yorkshire Cable/Telewest Broadband) have always been private enterprises - are they going to nationalise them as well?
If not - BT will be inundated with transfer requests and the cable companies will be redundant with the loss of 1,000's of jobs.

 

I must admit, I'm completely fed up with this GE campaign already and the thought of the best part of 4 more weeks of this just fills me with dread.

What I do think though (and it won't happen as the 2 "main" parties who aim to block all else out wouldn't see benefit in it) is that campaigning shouldn't be allowed until a manifesto has been published. We might actually have more deliberation for a period on actual policy instead of ever worsening populism.

Though in the minority, there are some journalists not taking rubbish and non answers as acceptable. It needs to be more, but its good to see there are least a few trying to get answers instead of populist soundbites.

 

W

what he said.

 

I do enjoy the how can we one of the richest countries on earth do what many other poorer countries do.

LibDems were hilarious this week claiming it was impossible to offer free university education despite this being common across Europe and in Scotland. Comic genius.

 

Actually we don't - Nationalisation does not break EU rules on State Aid as far as I am aware. If you know different happy to be corrected.

 

Complete coincidence that Kingsman was shown on the telly a few nights ago.
"Free calls...
Free internet...
For everybody...
Forever!"

 

I'm sure Mr Jansen has costed this entirely objectively (and quickly!) and was in no way influenced by the potential impact on his £8m pay package.

 

Theres been numerous contradictory articles and comments from politicians, economic commentators and even European commentators. I think much of the confusion centres around the bailing out of the banks and the dialogue that was required with the EU at that time.

But you also have the 4th railways protocols which seem to go against lock stock unilateral privatisation.

In terms of telecoms, I guess we'll never know seeing as Labour won't get close to being able to form a government.

 

Nothing to add. Fantastically well put across.