Broadband tax 'to be made law'

[DaBees-Knees]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8270772.stm

A controversial broadband tax should be law before the next election, according to Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms. The 50 pence a month tax applies to everyone with a fixed line telephone. Speaking at a debate in London, Mr Timms said the tax will be presented to parliament as part of the Finance Bill.

But the Tory MP John Whittingdale said the tax, which could raise up to £175m a year to fund high speed networks, would be opposed by the Conservatives. "I'm confident the Conservative party will oppose it. I object to it on the basis that it is another tax and is aimed at people who are using old technology," said Mr Whittingdale, who is also chair of the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) select committee.

Speaking at a debate organised by The BCS Chartered Institute for IT (formerly the British Computer Society), Mr Timms reiterated the government's commitment to the levy and the other recommendations of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report. "We want to make high speed networks nationally available. The next-generation fund will help that and we will legislate for it this side of a general election," he said.

No derailment
He told BBC News that the other recommendations of the Digital Britain report would "be built on" in the Digital Economy Bill, which will be presented to parliament in November.

There have been concerns in recent months that the Digital Britain report, which was unveiled in June, has been derailed.

Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, has intervened to beef up the government policy on illegal file-sharing, which could include removing persistent offenders from the net.

Mr Timms denied the report had been sidelined. "Nothing has been derailed. It is full steam ahead," he told BBC News.

Bash on regardless seems to be the order of the day. The fact that the government is strapped for money has no influence on the decision of course.

[..Ñøßߥ..]

Just another example of pathetic attempts of this labour government to line coffers, covering up as best they can the billions of pounds of waste they have created.

[GhostShip]

I dont personally think its such a bad idea as we do in fact need a national upgrade and the telecos are not going to pay for it without wringing all our wallets dry first, in fact I already pay 10 pounds on every bill I get because I dont enable the theives at BT billing full access to my account with a direct debit so I feel thats who the government should hit on, the scummy corporate jokers who steal off the poorest consumers and penalise those who dont pay by credit.

I hate to have to point this out Nobby but if the conservatives hadnt made BT privatised in the early 80's we would already have this network in place and it would have been a lot cheaper as we the british taxpayer owned the company and thus the cost would have been more fairly spread rather than this unfair tax that hits at those using fixed landlines rather than the big bucks making cellular phone systems, now all BT profits go abroad, phone boxes are becoming a rarity and directory enquiries that where free now cost over a pound a go and a fiver if you let them connect you instead of dialing it yourself, short term capitalism is for the short sighted I say.

There are no fast fixes folks and if a politician tells you there is they are a liar, if a country is in debt it must pay its bills, I may not like the fact I,m paying for others but I will pay because the alternative is even less palatable.

[..Ñøßߥ..]

I hate to have to point this out Nobby but if the conservatives hadnt made BT privatised in the early 80's we would already have this network in place and it would have been a lot cheaper as we the british taxpayer owned the company

Hmm not so sure i agree with that, i mean the NHS is owned by the British Tax payer, the service sucks, the budgets runs wildly out of control, there are way more levels of management than needed, the hospitals are dirty, the nurses and doctors often over worked and under paid. You ever see any of this in a privately run hospital?

The problem is in this country, nobody is held accountable, ISPs and many other private companies are allowed to rip the consumer off left right and centre and will do anything to avoid reinvesting in their businesses, instead they lobby government for help. We see the examples time and time again, almost every day there is another scandle, and look closely there is ALWAYS some part where the British tax payers gets to foot the bill.

There is some light though, i recently discovered a different political party, the English Democrates, whislt ofc, like any other party they are not perfect, they do have many many common sense policy, just check out what the Mayor of Doncaster has been up to.

"On his first morning as Mayor of Doncaster in South Yorkshire , Peter Davies cut his salary from £73,000 to £30,000 then closed the Council's newspaper for "peddling politics on the rates"

"Now three weeks into his job, Mr Davies is pressing ahead with plans he hopes will see the number of town councillors cut from 63 to just 21, saving taxpayers £800,000. Mr Davies said: "If 100 Senators can run the United States of America , I can't see how 63 councillors are needed to run Doncaster "

"He has withdrawn Doncaster from the Local Government Association and the Local Government Information Unit, saving another £200,000. Mr Davies said, "They are just talking shops"

" Doncaster is in for some serious untwinning. We are twinned with nine other cities around the world and they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the Council's expense"

"He has promised to end council funding for Doncaster 's International Women's Day, Black History Month and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month."

"This is why if you put his name into Google you can find thousands of links to incandescent tofu munchers who would seem to have taken a break from sitting around all night drinking herbal tea to get really upset about what normal sane people call eminently sensible cost cutting measures. Mind you the removal of free translation services for immigrants seems to have induced a pandemic of apoplectic fits in the trendier parts of Hoxton that it has put swine flu in the shade. Good. I hope you all choke. "

http://www.readmyday.co.uk/PaulRogan/archive/2009/07/29/the-mayor-of-doncaster.htm

http://www.englishdemocrats.org.uk/

Whilst i don't want to go too far off topic QS, there are some quick fixes, the application of common sense to policy and business attitudes in this country would save us the tax payers billions and improve the efficiancy of the nation as whole.

[Trestor]

He sounds like a good bloke, that Mayor of Doncaster. Naturally, his reforms will not be allowed to stand in the long term.

[Lagerlout666]

Excellent, need a guy like that in every council. Peter Davies all the way. Its about time someone with Ball's went in and made actual changes, instead of promising and then following the flock and taking the wages. Just need to get that moron spender Brown out the chair now.  

**edit i read this guys blog page, i emailed him too. This country needs a guy like him, who doesn't care who he upsets as long as he is doing right and saving the tax payer money**

[..Ñøßߥ..]

Excellent, need a guy like that in every council. Peter Davies all the way. Its about time someone with Ball's went in and made actual changes, instead of promising and then following the flock and taking the wages. Just need to get that moron spender Brown out the chair now. 

**edit i read this guys blog page, i emailed him too. This country needs a guy like him, who doesn't care who he upsets as long as he is doing right and saving the tax payer money**

I couldn't agree more, and this guy is an English Demorcat, his actions actually spurred me to read their entire manifesto, and whilst there are some things i do not agree, i would say 95% of it i agree with. Can anyone here honestly claim that of any other political party? I really do not understand why every council in this country isn't run like this, then we wouldn't be in half the shit we are. Imagine this guy running the country, he could save so much wasted cash we could all have a nice shiny new cable network, who knows we might even be able to provide our hard working troops with the kit and resources they deserve.

[DaBees-Knees]

What they forgot to say was Doncaster was that bad due to an extreme left wing group being in charge over the years.  Anything that anyone did had to be an improvement.  Now there's a danger of a swing to the far right.

The bit that you all missed from the original article was the possibility of Mandelsons bit being thrown in at the same time.