Now, I am hesitant to dismiss out of hand the idea that broadband is something that, like the NHS, could be provided as a public service to some. With many public, social and commercial services increasingly provided only over the internet, there is a risk that those without access to reliable broadband will be condemned to an analogue ghetto. But I’m not sure that nationalisation is the answer to this genuine problem, when subsidising a few accounts for the neediest would be much easier and wouldn’t destroy an already competitive industry. Most households can afford their broadband bill already, and are happy to pay extra for better services if they so desire – is it really the government’s job to make sure online gamers or heavy Netflix viewers enjoy uninterrupted connectivity?
Nevertheless, polling suggests it’s a popular idea among consumers – although giveaways generally are, of course, forgetting the all-important point that someone still has to pay. In the case of free broadband for all, Labour says the bill would be £20bn, a figure disputed by industry observers who suggest the cost would be at least twice that with annual maintenance “a high multiple” of Labour’s estimated £230m. No bother, says Labour, as the plan would be funded by forcing large technology companies operating here to pay their taxes in full – the party’s economic advisers believe a “unitary tax system”, which would force companies to pay a proportion of the global profits in UK tax and close accounting loopholes, could raise between £6bn and £14bn a year.
That’s a policy that’s in fact aligned with international efforts to stop multinationals shifting profits around to minimise taxes, and one supported by public opinion – a so-called ‘FAANG’ tax seems likely at some point regardless of who wins the election. And in fact there are often kernels of sense at the root of many of Labour’s on-first-glance crazy-sounding policies – Chris Dillow makes a case for public ownership of infrastructure, and, as Paul Jackson suggests in this week's No Free Lunch, what employee would not want to own part of the company they work for, as Labour is proposing under its Inclusive Ownership Fund. But, he says, this can be achieved using tried-and-tested methods such as share schemes and without the upheaval proposed by Labour. The same is surely true of many of their objectives, because while radical thinking is necessary to push society in the right direction, a grasping free-for-all won’t help.
