i see.. didnt realise it was that close, guess that means the whole digital britain bill will be dropped *hooray!* "call me dave" says he's gonna drop the tax and the invasive file sharing bits, but keep the 2mb rollout and i cant see Big Gord getting back in somehow,
anyway! in a attempt to get this back on track again, i found the link: Samknows Broadband - Budget: 50p landline tax confirmed the Cameron bit is at the bottom
Can't see "Big Gord" getting back in with truly scary and disturbing pics like this being published whatever he does about broadband tax
Problem is "airbrushed Dave" is gonna raise taxation anyway, whatever for. The country is broke we can't afford the Health Service let alone broadband for all.
Anyway to make things totally non partisan here's a pic of both future Prime Ministers.
"Big Gord" is the stuff of horror movies but the gleam from Dave's forehead follows you round the room in an unsettling way too. I wouldn't have either of em at my table
peace&love man, John:)
Hi guys
At least you are better off than we are -- all the Banks are FLAT BROKE HERE.
Thank goodness I've got a Euro account in Holland and am paid in Euros even on my UK contract.
Back to the point -- why can't people who want fast Broadband pay for it themselves.
Even in an Internet Savvy country like Iceland my parents have ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in the Internet or anything to do with it.
They still do all their communicating "The Old Fashioned way" and haven't the desire or inclination to change. But they would "Man the Barricades" in a street if they suddenly had to pay even a small tax like this for a service they didn't think was part of a Governments remit.
To quote from an ancient book :
"Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and Render to God what is God's".
Seems appropriate here.
Cheers
jimbo
jimbo i agree, that the people who want it should pay for it, but the original post is about giving people a basic level of broadband access, BT are rolling out FTTC and FTTP to busy exchanges and there are still people who cant even get broadband!
having said that, i can see whats left of the tax after "big gord" has had his way with it, just being given to BT and being used to fund FTTC and FTTP and the "2mb for all" won't happen
i like "call me dave"'s idea better, he said he'll give whatever is left from the digital switchover fund (about 2 million odd they reckon) to the phone companys to do the upgrade, so no tax,
Ok, we british, as I have said before, just accept what we are given by this government and any other one come to that.
Why dont we give an extra 50p on top of that first one and give it to ANY company that want to make more goods for the people who dont have them.
Why dont we give it so homeless people can get a mortgage.
Why dont we give it so peoples personal loans can be paid off early.
The list goes on and on. This is a shaky road to go down but then the Labour government dont really care about its people. It only cares for what they can get out of its people.
They only care about how much they can hurt this, our country. 50p is not much, but then again for a person who only makes £5:80p hour it is a lot.
I think the point has been missed a bit since the first post went on this thread. I think the idea is not to necessarily make fast broadband available to home users but to concentrate on the business sector. The UK is getting more and more dependant on services rather than manufacturing. Particularly true in the financial sector. Love them or loath them the thousands of people who work in banking and the other financial institutions bring an enormous amount of domestic and overseas business to the UK. A huge amount of tax revenue is generated from this business. It is essential for a well balanced society to try to ensure that all business sectors move forward together to make sure that one sector does not get eletist. I believe that it is the governemnts intention to roll out high speed broadband to all businesses in this country so that we can continue to comptete internationally. The fact that if HS BB becomes available in your area and you have the opportunity to avail yourself of the new service then that's a bonus. If you want it you will pay the going rate for the service. The 50p tax is nowhere near enough to get this huge project underway but it will kick start it. It is a tax not a subsidy. If you want your country to succeed in the greater world market then we the people must invest in our own future.
Why am I prantling on so much? Because in 2002 I lead a campaign, as a volunteer, to get broadband into the rural areas of Cornwall. The project had plenty of sceptics not least of all was BT who said in would never happen! It happened and now in Cornwall we have one of the highest broadband take ups in the country. The economic advantages to the county are huge and proven. Look at this site for confimation:
The story so far - actnow broadband Cornwall - ensuring that wherever businesses are in Cornwall, they have access to broadband
Nice one mitchell65. Very good post and an excellent achievement in your local community
Thank you - much apprecaited. I must say that my involvelment in that lead to so much more interest for me. I worked and am still doing so from time to time again as a volunteer on Internet Security with a research project led led by a friend of mine at the Plymouth Univerity School of Computer Science (very highbrow stuff but I manage to hide my ignorance for the most part)
I think there is lack of definition what "broadband" means between countries. the US actually is way behind other OECD countries. (and the US defines broadband as anything above 200 kBs). I live in Madison, WI and the suburbia has about 400,000 capita. but 6 MBs is the fastest DSL I can get, and I live in a new neighborhood. This is fast enough for downloading, serving... but not for businesses. If you go more into the woods, I'm sure DSL is a luxury. and whne i see the comercials comparing stallite internet to dial-up, I'm sure there are ton of dial-up peole here that don't get DSL or cable (hence the stupid satellite commercial). Brown is right, internet is what electricity was in the 19th century.
about the tax to give everyone boradband: It is beneficial if everyone has broadband. If I pay tax for my neighbor to have high speed internet he has the opportunity to have a job from home instead of being unemployed and costing me more than 50ct a month. The same way I gladly pay tax for my neighbors children to go to school, so they get good jobs and pay tax instead of becoming criminals. the same way I benefit if my neighbor has medical insurance as opposed to being sick and not being able to work and losing his house and me having a foreclosed home nearby.
However, government could use some of the tax they already collect and use it more wisely and pay for internet that way.
As I predicted this tax is now dead
BBC News - Super-fast broadband tax scrapped
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