What the hell is a Conservative Party MP doing writing in the Guardian? Surely he must be aware that sister paper of the BBC is the spawn of Beelzebub? Apparently Jake Berry, who represents Rossendale & Darwen ( where is that?) is happy to sup with the Devil and has published a long piece arguing that the Government should ensure that those living in Social housing get access to broadband at low – or even no – cost. Er….
So let me get this straight Jake: you and I work hard (well you are an MP but I will give you the benefit of the doubt) to earn money on which we pay tax so that folks living in housing subidised by those taxes, usually entirely dependent on benefits paid for by those taxes, now get to play computer games on the Internet all day thanks to my taxes as well. Fab. Sounds like a really great idea. Not.
The moronic Berry opines “we do need to recognise that tackling digital exclusion is now a key part of fighting deprivation by creating routes into work and out of poverty …the facts are stark: half of all people without internet access in the UK live in social housing.”
Hmm. Logic not your strong point is it mate. You show that half the folks without internet access live in social housing. You might also show that three quarters of those who buy turkey twizzlers live in social housing. But it is not the lack of internet access or the surfeit of turkey twizzlers that causes poverty. It is perhaps that being poor means you have to make choices about what you spend a limited budget: is it beer, cigarettes, SkyTV or broadband? They could always get off their arse, get a job and have fewer hard choices to make, I suppose.
What percentage of those in social housing who do not have broadband do spend cash on alcohol, SkyTV, the lottery or cigarettes? I think Jake will find that it is a meaningful one. What he is demanding is that those of us who work and who have to make choices between SkyTV and broadband will subsidise those who do not so that they get both.
Having demonstrated no evidence that being www non-enabled causes poverty this poltroon merely wishes to take a bit more from those 35% (and falling) of the population who are net givers to the state and hand it to the net takers. Stupid boy. I thought you were meant to be a Tory.
If Jake wishes to end poverty how about he pushes to: increase the threshold at which one starts paying tax to £20,000, scraps the minimum wage, abolishes employers NI contributions and removes welfare payments from those who are not actively seeking work. That would of course work but I guess such a column would not get published in the Guardian.