Didn’t get the memo
If you experienced the joy of listening to, or even reading through Chancellor Alistair Darling's last budget before the general election, you will have realised it delivered very little of substance.
Darling spent most of it stressing what a great job he did in steering the country through the global recession and emphasising that despite record national debt levels, now is not the time to reduce state spending, for fear of stopping the recovery before it has become self-sustaining.
To that end the Chancellor announced a £2.5 billion ‘one-off growth package' targeting small business, infrastructure and key skills. One of the areas of infrastructure that has been the focus of electioneers from all parties has been broadband. Gordon Brown even gave us a preview of what the government has in mind earlier this week when he said he wanted 100% super-fast broadband access by 2020.
The only problem is he apparently forgot to tell Alistair Darling. The only mention he gave to broadband in his Budget speech was to confirm the broadband tax.
"We have taken the decision to ensure the benefits are spread to rural as well as urban areas and are not limited to the better off," said Darling. "The 50 pence monthly landline duty will unlock private investment and enable 90 percent of the country to access the next generation of super-fast broadband by 2017."
Unlock private investment?
Sebastien Lahtinen, co-founder of thinkbroadband.com, had this to say in response: "The Prime Minister made references in a speech on Monday to 100% next generation broadband coverage, so we are disappointed that the budget has simply repeated the government's previous target of 90% coverage by 2017."
The rest of the speech was mainly the usual vague pledges to save money through greater public sector efficiencies and vows to bring down public debt without any specifics on how he will go about it. Maybe that's what he took from Brown's speech.
