The Armchair's Web

One of the main talking points of the recently-published Digital Britain report (PDF) was a proposal to impose a 50p a-month levy on every household in the country to fund upgrades to the UK internet service.

But do we really need faster internet access at a time where the existing infrastructure is creaking because of a combination of bad management and government interference?

Any government plan to impose such a levy should be opposed. The telephone and internet companies should foot the whole bill for these upgrades themselves, not by increasing prices, but by actually delivering a service.

Having faster internet access is not a vital issue. The Iraq war inquiry, rising unemployment, swine flu, MPs expenses, poor transport, rising crime and many others are far more important to this country right now. We need to tackle these…. and other basic issues… first.