A crackpot scheme

Labour’s election pledge to deliver free broadband by 2030 has been more or less capsized on techno, financing and competitiveness grounds but – for me – the greatest idiocy as outlined in the scheme by John McConnell is that, due to the size of the investment, Labour would take it over.

If anything sends a shudder down the spine of investors its the thought of Labour running any enterprise.

The history of nationalisation and intervention is a long and sorrowful one.

I recall my late father telling me that the Leyland Bus was so sought after it was exported all over the world, so what did Labour do? They merged it into British Leyland which failed to compete in the market with German and Japanese automobiles.

Fast forward to John de Lorean who duped Labour with his snake oil salesmanship. Labour are naive, lack any experience of business, are all expenditure and no sense of cost, and have a social, and not commercial, agenda.

I’m no technophile but the advances made in this sector, the prevalence and preference of mobile phones amongst the young, lead me to the conclusion that by 2030 broadband might be as relevant as landlines and the fax machine.

Sooner rather than later, if Labour are going to make any headway in their election campaign, they are going to have to address their fundamental problem, namely that Jeremy Corbyn is not seen by many as a Prime Minister.