Let's Get Political!

[RobertT]

Fear > Options & Opportunities - Trump won over here and was universally hated as well as performing like an idiot in debates.  The Tories do not have to look competent to Lib Dem supporters, just create enough scared people.

[Arriba]

And we can all remember the last GE, where Theresa, was kept away from debates as she was so useless. Still won though.

[horlock07]

Fear > Options & Opportunities - Trump won over here and was universally hated as well as performing like an idiot in debates.  The Tories do not have to look competent to Lib Dem supporters, just create enough scared people.

Bet Trump knows the words to the Wheels on the Bus though.....

https://twitter.com/Otto_English/status/1195014856803532801

[Legends-Lounge]

Time to stockpile string and tin cans 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Flashheart]

Labour promise free broadband - paid for by taxing tech giants.

No doubt there will be many that will be sceptical/cynical and it is reasonable to question such a promise. Regardless, it's still quite a pledge to make and a potential game-changer. It should turn a few heads, especially among younger voters which is the demographic they should be aiming for. It's almost as though they've done their homework.

Meanwhile, the tories switch their attention from attacking Labour/Corbyn to attacking immigrants instead.

Have the tories mentioned a policy of their own yet? Asides from 'get Brexit done'?

[Legends-Lounge]

Labour promise free broadband - paid for by taxing tech giants.

No doubt there will be many that will be sceptical/cynical and it is reasonable to question such a promise. Regardless, it's still quite a pledge to make and a potential game-changer. It should turn a few heads, especially among younger voters which is the demographic they should be aiming for. It's almost as though they've done their homework.

Meanwhile, the tories switch their attention from attacking Labour/Corbyn to attacking immigrants instead.

Have the tories mentioned a policy of their own yet? Asides from 'get Brexit done'?

Yes, very nice reply, hopefully you’ll forgive me if I carry on looking for string and can manufacturing investment opportunities.

[Batch]

have they let The Apprentice candidates loose on the Labour policy manifesto?

Free nationalised broadband? fuck off

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

‘Children. Come and get your broadband. All free today’

[Nemo]

Initial thought was that the broadband idea was utter nonsense, but on reflection I'm not quite sure why. There are some, to put it mildly, privacy concerns if the state is your ISP but not really sure that's so different from the private companies we have now.

The major advantage of it I could see is if you can give absolutely everyone reliable broadband (and that feels like a big if with the general government ability to delivery infrastructure projects) then you can move more of government services online (jobcentres, benefits, taxation etc.) and deliver them at a fraction of the cost. At which point it might cost rather less than first thought.

[jayohaitchenn]

On the face of it, it's not really a very good idea. But those who wish to pay a private company for broadband will still be able to do so, and the Nationalised Broadband will be there to keep the technology moving forward and making sure all the pony villages in the UK have proper access to the internet - whether it is profitable or not.

Something needs to be done, we are slipping behind tech giants such as Madagascar in this space:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/10/uk-slips-to-35th-in-global-table-of-broadband-speeds

PS, Singapore seem to be doing OK with a nationalised phone/internet provider:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singtel

[Flashheart]

It's easy to scoff at to begin with but the more you think about it, the better idea it is.

It will also likely be beneficial for the companies they would be taxing. The likes of Facebook etc must surely benefit if more of the population are online, helping recoup at least some of the tax.

[jayohaitchenn]

Agreed, my initial reaction was overwhelmingly negative but the more I thought about it, the more advantages I saw.

Full disclosure - I'm a network engineer so have some knowledge in this area.

[horlock07]

There are some, to put it mildly, privacy concerns if the state is your ISP but not really sure that's so different from the private companies we have now.

Isn't the state essentially our ISP now anyway, admittedly its the Chinese state but hey ho.

Its like when people witter on about nationalised railways being a dreadful thing rather ignoring that a lot of our train companies are owned by the state, just not the UK state. For instance our trains here are run by Northern, which is a subsidiary of Arriva, which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which is owned by the government of Germany, likewise whjen Virgin give up the West Coast franchise next month its successor is partly owned by Trenitalia owned by the Italian government.

[horlock07]

Possibly bollocks?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50426535

[Arriba]

Watched question time for the first time in a long while last night. Quite a reasonable and balanced edition I thought. Even the lass from the Brexit party seemed clear and concise. I especially enjoyed it as James Cleverly made the complete tit of himself he is. Came across dreadfully. He's so much worse than Dianne Abbott could ever be but doesn't get anywhere near the flack he actually deserves.