Jeremy Corbyn heckler demands: Is this your democracy?
- by Pat Wise
- in Hi-Tech
- — Nov 15, 2019
BT Group PLC's (LON:BT.A) Openreach will be nationalised if the Labour Party wins the general election, the party announced on Friday, while the company was more interested in its new Champions League football broadcast deal.
"Labour is promising nothing short of a self-described "radical transformation" of the British economy, with plans not only to provide "the gold standard" of broadband", but to take over Britain's for-profit railways, postal service, water companies and energy providers.
Costs would include a one-off £15.5 billion payment to rollout the full-fibre network, plus the government's existing and not yet spent £5 billion commitment.
And he repeated his pledge that a Labour government would set up a department of employment rights, saying this would "guarantee from day one of your employment you have got full rights at work, including the right to join a trade union".
Labour said it would nationalise Openreach - the digital network arm of the country's biggest broadband and mobile phone provider - as well as parts of BT Technology, BT Enterprise and BT Consumer.
Speaking at a campaign event in Lancaster, Mr Corbyn will say: "The internet has become such a central part of our lives".
Labour said it does not intend to bring EE, Plusnet, BT Global Services, BT TV and other such "non-broadband-relevant parts of BT" into public ownership.
"This is a spectacularly bad take by the Labour Party", said Matthew Howett, founder and principal analyst at Assembly Research.
'Ford v Ferrari' review: Christian Bale and Matt Damon's long ride
And while the movie is over 2 hours long, the time flies by as you're utterly engrossed by the drama unfolding at Le Mans. Luckily, they are intense, well shot, with a fantastic score to back it up and sound effects to get your heart pumping.
Trump ally Roger Stone found guilty of lying to Congress, witness tampering
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged during closing arguments that Stone lied to protect President Donald Trump . Prosecutors said Stone had also threatened Credico's therapy dog, Bianca, saying he was "going to take that dog away from you".
Two Killed in California High School Shooting
Investigators said they did not know what led the student to open fire at the school 40 miles (65 km) north of Los Angeles. The suspect is believed to be a student at the school, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told CNN affiliate KABC.
All of this would be paid for by a new tax on multinational corporations like Amazon, Google and Facebook.
Labour argued that public ownership of the UK's broadband network would "help tackle the regional inequality in coverage caused by competition that has led to under-build in rural and remote communities, and over-build in profitable areas".
Johnson's Conservatives, who were responsible for the belt-tightening measures since 2010, have promised more money for infrastructure and public services, but not on the same scale.
It claims that a fast, comprehensive network could boost productivity by £59 billion by 2025.
"It's time to make the very fastest full-fibre broadband free to everybody, in every home in every corner of our country".
UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the plan would "put an end to patchy and slow coverage", and expand the availability of full-fibre broadband to more than just 8-10 percent of premises.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that Labour's costed pledges on investment - not including the full price of the nationalisations - amount to £55 billion a year for the next five years, compared to £20 billion for the Tories.
