News - Gordon Brown wants 100% super-fast broadband access by 2020

[TooNice]

To be honest, Korea and Japan have invested in their own infrastructure for a long time already so any attempt to catch up will undoubtedly take a long time. I wonder though if people may be overestimating broadband speed in some countries. Sure world leading Korea has access to 100 Mbps broadband and is already talking about 1Gbps broadband by 2012 (costing them a cool $24B to do so). But just as Virgin here offers 50Mbit broadband with 200Mbit on the way, the average may well be a bit more modest: http://www.speedtest.net/global.php#0

[Biscuit]

people moan our internet is the slowest in europe etc etc then when someone says 'we gotta do something about it' everyone moans more... jeez go write a letter or something. Im no fan of browns rubbish either but the goals he has set out are pretty sensible realistically.

[SammEl]

It's all very well for Brown to spout off about what he wants in 10 years time but I'm sure what he really wants is to still be in power in 10 weeks time .... and I wouldn't put money on even that happening.

LOL, he isn't going anywhere.

[TheAnimus]

well calling something based on personal predudice is best expressed with a LOL.
http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/i...tml?polls.html

I have this horrible feeling we will see a hung, which will probably mean things like this just don't happen.

[squirrelz]

well calling something based on personal predudice is best expressed with a LOL.
http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/i...tml?polls.html

I have this horrible feeling we will see a hung, which will probably mean things like this just don't happen.

Hang 'em all....

[aidanjt]

Seriously, guys, if your country explicitly elects Gordon Brown, you deserve everything you get.

[SammEl]

Seriously, guys, if your country explicitly elects Gordon Brown, you deserve everything you get.

Do we have any other person? No, no we don't.

[matty-hodgson]

Who would vote for me if I created my own party? I'd run shi.. Stuff a whole new way.

[Saracen]

Do we have any other person? No, no we don't.

Sometimes, elections aren't about who you vote for, but who you vote against, not who you vote to elect but who you vote to get rid of.

And despite what the press would gave you believe, which is that it's all about Brown v Cameron, a LOT of people aren't that daft, and they vote on a complex set of motivations, running from "because I've always voted like that" to what they believe is the best mix of actual policies, like employment, economy, crime and immigration.

And remember that the election isn't won or lost by the diehards in either camp - it's won or lost by who manages to convince the few percent of the voting electorate, the swing voters in the marginals, that switch and matter. Those swings put parties in or out of power.

Don't put too much faith in polls either. First, they've been wrong before .... big-time. Second, they have about a 3% error margin, and from the general consensus at the moment (about 3-5% Tory lead) that's enough to encompass either a Labour overall win or a Tory one. And even at that, the polls are national aggregates and don't reflect the voting pattern on those critical marginals.

And don't under-estimate the power of disenchantment either. One of the reasons Labour swept to power was the feeling that the Tories were tired and lacking ideas and drive, and on top of that, a healthy dose of "Tory sleaze" gave Blair the chance for a "whiter than white" campaign promise .... and we've all seen just how hollow that was. Now, Labour are looking tired and lacking ideas, the country is showing signs of being ready for a change and Labour have certainly come out of the expenses and more recent sleaze stories looking by far the worst. It's rather inevitable that they'd come out of "cash for influence" scandals looking worse, for the simple reason that they've been the ones in power, so have access to those in government and senior civil service. The incumbents will always come out of that type of scandal worse, whoever they are.

And for everyone that thinks Cameron is a soulless opportunistic upper class PR merchant, there's those that have evaluated Brown's performance as being the bloke at the wheel while government got us into this mess, as the bloke signing the cheques and so him directly for the size of the debt and deficit we find ourselves in.

So to pretend that there's nobody else that can win is simply daft. Cameron certainly can win. And according to the bookies, is likely to.

For example, Paddy Power are running an overall Labour majority at 12 to 1, a hung parliament at 9 to 4 and a Tory overall majority at 3 to 1 ON. Other bookies have similar results. They clearly believe that the Tories will win.

The simple truth is that nobody, but absolutely nobody knows who will win .... but that right now, the odds, quite literally, are that Cameron will.

[Saracen]

Seriously, guys, if your country explicitly elects Gordon Brown, you deserve everything you get.

The trouble is, most of the damage has already been done, and it's been done by Brown. Once the election is safely over and the politicians don't have to worry about 'scaring the kids', they're going to develop a set of cojones, harden their tone and 'start to take the tough decisions, for the good of the country', regardless of who wins.

In other words, we're going to "get it" whoever we elect and regardless of whether we deserve it or not.

We're in doo-doo regardless of who's running things, but personally, if I'm in a building that's on fire, I don't really want the fire engines dealing with the blaze to be commanded by a rabid arsonist, and especially not by the one that set fire to the building in the first place. He's all too likely to use jet fuel instead of water.

[SammEl]

So to pretend that there's nobody else that can win is simply daft. Cameron certainly can win. And according to the bookies, is likely to.

For example, Paddy Power are running an overall Labour majority at 12 to 1, a hung parliament at 9 to 4 and a Tory overall majority at 3 to 1 ON. Other bookies have similar results. They clearly believe that the Tories will win.

The simple truth is that nobody, but absolutely nobody knows who will win .... but that right now, the odds, quite literally, are that Cameron will.

Well that's news to me, thanks.

All I'll say is, if Cameron wins, the Public are a bunch of daft baboons reading too much of TheSun - You can't trust any Government, period, but the Tories, man, what a sad day for Britian it will be.

But, imo, I just can't see him winning, sure, public polls state that people "prefer" him to Brown, but the die hard voters (the people who ACTUALLY go and vote) are going to vote Labour, imo of course.

Quite silly that when people are asked about who they want to win, and they will state something like "Brown has crippled the world Economy", rofl, do people still not understand what a "Credit Crunch" is? It's happened before, more than once, and it will happen again for sure, regardless of who is in power and what rules are put in place. 20 years of boom and 3 years of bust is better than 100 years of average growth.

Bring in a black leader to one of the top 3 parties and they will win, pure and utter fact, it's a unique change in the chain, it's how people are at the moment, can't say it will be like it for long though, the Obama trend won't last that long.

Oh well, we shall see, my money is on Labour.

[aidanjt]

We're in doo-doo regardless of who's running things, but personally, if I'm in a building that's on fire, I don't really want the fire engines dealing with the blaze to be commanded by a rabid arsonist, and especially not by the one that set fire to the building in the first place. He's all too likely to use jet fuel instead of water.

Nice analogy there, but from looking at SammEl there, its looking as if some would happily call in the rabid arsonist.

[TheAnimus]

Well that's news to me, thanks.

How come, they've been ahead in the polls for ages?

You can't trust any Government, period, but the Tories, man, what a sad day for Britian it will be.

Why? We don't know what they will do, but the idea is they couldn't have screwed up as much as Brown has, we are very nearly bankrupt, it wouldn't take much to push us over the edge as the graph nicely shows (admittedly missing greece) a fricken monkey would have done a better job because it wouldn't have spent any money, it would have been to busy mastrabating and throwing poo.

Given that, I'll vote for the opportunist "oh my wife is up the duff, perfectly timed don't you know" monkey.

and they will state something like "Brown has crippled the world Economy", rofl, do people still not understand what a "Credit Crunch" is?

Actually you know why they say this? Because brown made a claim that he'd saved the world economy, this to me is a shocking insight into how disillusion the man is. He is not just horrifically narcissist, he actually has such a twisted perception of the world and his actions he can not come to the blindingly obvious conclusion.

That is a very worrying character trait for anyone in a position of power or authority.

It's happened before, more than once, and it will happen again for sure, regardless of who is in power and what rules are put in place. 20 years of boom and 3 years of bust is better than 100 years of average growth.

Well thats news to me, I always read that economic theory suggests sustained growth, like that which he inherited from the incumbent Major cabinet is the goal.

I'd be curious to know what leads you to that conclusion, that you don't want sustained growth but boom and bust?

Bring in a black leader to one of the top 3 parties and they will win, pure and utter fact, it's a unique change in the chain, it's how people are at the moment, can't say it will be like it for long though, the Obama trend won't last that long.

Oh dear lord.

Most people in the UK aren't racist, that is a two way street you know, they won't vote for someone just because they are a minority (thou often minority members will). Now we have had a female PM, from most indicators a good one considering the state the country was in when she was handed power. And lets have a little look at oppression in the US?

Votes, 1 for white male, 0.5 for black male. 0 for female.

If anything the US needs to elect a black female! Also reparations should be been paid to female targeted groups rather than just black one could argue? (or one could say it shows how much bollocks the idea of reparations are!)


So back in the UK, given we have had virtually no oppression, there would be few who would vote out of guilt. Given how small the minority "oh he's the same colour as me" lot are, they wouldn't be significant when weighed against the good old racist pensioners.

[Barrichello]

Well that's news to me, thanks.

All I'll say is, if Cameron wins, the Public are a bunch of daft baboons

Even more daft to vote four our current inept government again. How can anyone seriously consider Labour after their recent track record?

[SammEl]

Actually you know why they say this? Because brown made a claim that he'd saved the world economy, this to me is a shocking insight into how disillusion the man is. He is not just horrifically narcissist, he actually has such a twisted perception of the world and his actions he can not come to the blindingly obvious conclusion.

Is there "solid" proof that Brown could of done something differently and it would of worked out far better than what it has?

The worst part is over, (banks are still very wary of who they lend too atm) - Jobs here are flowing, mate wanted a job the other week and he got one in the same week, but that's this part of the country. A lot of work is back as our hotel are full with work based guests i.e. builders.

When I was watching the polls on Sky News not too long ago, popularity vary between what is shown on the TV and newspaper tbh, the majority of people who vote are clueless to what politics is and how it works.

[SammEl]

Enjoy your new Prime Minister (man, I'll say it again, if he gets in, every single person who voted for him is a Baboon).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBlDfp85gP8