Tough new laws are needed to protect people’s online privacy, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has insisted.
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“It will therefore come as no surprise to my local party to learn that, having remained totally loyal to the democratically-elected leader of our party since his election, I will stay loyal to Jeremy during the contest that has arisen from that coup, and he will have my vote in this election”.
Smith’s primary message has been that he would be a credible prime minister in waiting, but his campaign has seemingly failed in selling this to the party membership.
“There is now just under a month until the leadership election and party members will be hoping to see support for Owen Smith in the coming weeks to propel him to victory in this contest”.
Of the 130,000 who paid the £25 fee to sign up a registered supporter, 70 per cent are expected to choose Corbyn in the contest. It’s in this way that Labour can get back into government.
He said Labour would “be able to make good on our promises” if they were in power but fears that Mr Corbyn would leave them in “perpetual opposition”. Where Corbyn did score highly among his support was in the “principled” (97%) and “honest” (93%) categories.
“The investment of £25 billion seems to me to be money extremely well spent that will help to reduce the levels of regional imbalance and regional inequality in Britain”, he said.
The Labour leader said he was “open minded” about a national broadband network being publicly owned, alongside private providers.
He will also promise to foster more cooperative ownership of digital platforms by getting his proposed national investment bank to fund websites and apps created to slash the cost of connecting producers with consumers.
Corbyn’s “Digital Democracy” speech also comes a week after a United Nations report announced that disconnecting people from the Internet is a human rights violation and against global law.
“There is also a clear need for more online democracy and our manifesto today sets out how Labour would democratise the internet in order to rebuild and transform Britain, so that no one and no community is left behind”.
The government is now aiming to give everyone a legal right to fast broadband, with speeds of 10Mbps as the absolute minimum.
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An Ofcom report last December found 2% of United Kingdom premises – mostly in rural areas – were unable to receive speeds of at least two Mbps through a fixed line. “It’s for the Scottish people ultimately to determine what they want”.
