Wednesday 19th November 2014

[diGriz]

A friend on social media upset that he is registered with TPS, ex-directory and not on the public electoral roll yet received a phone call today from UKIP (He's Roch and Strood).

[TechnicalEphemera]

lbert Owen MP retweeted
Kirsty Williams ‏@Kirsty_Williams Nov 18
Why can we communicate with a space probe millions of miles away and yet we can't get a decent mobile signal & broadband in Brecon & Radnor.

Keep up Kirsty ... it's because of all those terrorists stranded in the Beacons, love. Teresa's master plan needs the not spots. Wales must sacrifice itself for the greater good, our national security.

These people are thick.

Hint, instead of vacuous tweeting look at:

RF propagation issues.
Limitations on fibre availability for backhaul.
Issues of DSL propagation, street cabinet locations and population density.
Limitations on microwave alternatives to fibre backhaul.
Total revenue available versus capex and opex.

The answers should be bloody obvious.

[TechnicalEphemera]

A friend on social media upset that he is registered with TPS, ex-directory and not on the public electoral roll yet received a phone call today from UKIP (He's Roch and Strood).

Not sure about the concept of a public electoral roll versus the full one. But ex-directory is usually a killer for canvassing.

[rebeccariots2]

lbert Owen MP retweeted
Kirsty Williams ‏@Kirsty_Williams Nov 18
Why can we communicate with a space probe millions of miles away and yet we can't get a decent mobile signal & broadband in Brecon & Radnor.

Keep up Kirsty ... it's because of all those terrorists stranded in the Beacons, love. Teresa's master plan needs the not spots. Wales must sacrifice itself for the greater good, our national security.

These people are thick.

Hint, instead of vacuous tweeting look at:

RF propagation issues.
Limitations on fibre availability for backhaul.
Issues of DSL propagation, street cabinet locations and population density.
Limitations on microwave alternatives to fibre backhaul.
Total revenue available versus capex and opex.

The answers should be bloody obvious.

Oi, that could be the next leader of the Lib Dems you're calling thick there. Oh well ... OK.

[rebeccariots2]

A friend on social media upset that he is registered with TPS, ex-directory and not on the public electoral roll yet received a phone call today from UKIP (He's Roch and Strood).

Not sure about the concept of a public electoral roll versus the full one. But ex-directory is usually a killer for canvassing.

Has your friend ever contacted his Tory MP .... eh hummm, that would be his current Ukip candidate?

I was similarly disgusted to start receiving unsolicited emails etc from Tory Euro election candidates - and presumed my contact details had been handed over to other Tory mailing lists after I contacted my Tory MP. I had to give address, phone no etc when contacting him - it was set out as a clear condition of his acknowledging and responding to any correspondence.

If he has - there might possibly be a case for the Information Commissioner to look at?

[Tubby Isaacs]

lbert Owen MP retweeted
Kirsty Williams ‏@Kirsty_Williams Nov 18
Why can we communicate with a space probe millions of miles away and yet we can't get a decent mobile signal & broadband in Brecon & Radnor.

Keep up Kirsty ... it's because of all those terrorists stranded in the Beacons, love. Teresa's master plan needs the not spots. Wales must sacrifice itself for the greater good, our national security.

Rural broadband is another Coalition disaster, isn't it?

[citizenJA]

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2014 Provisional Results
This product is designated as National Statistics

Part of Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2014 Provisional Results Release
Data in this release (22) Released: 19 November 2014

"In April 2014 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £518, up 0.1% from £517 in 2013. This is the smallest annual growth since 1997, the first year for which ASHE data are available.

Growth has been slower since the economic downturn, with the annual increase averaging around 1.4% per year between 2009 and 2014.

Adjusted for inflation, weekly earnings decreased by 1.6% compared to 2013. The largest decrease was between 2010 and 2011, but inflation-adjusted earnings have continued to decrease every year since 2008, to levels last seen in the early 2000s."

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/ashe/annu ... -2014.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm unsure if this has been posted earlier here today. I found it after someone insisted the ONS is telling nothing but good things about current government & the economy they've debauched.

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, everyone. Thank you.

Love,
JA

[TechnicalEphemera]

lbert Owen MP retweeted
Kirsty Williams ‏@Kirsty_Williams Nov 18
Why can we communicate with a space probe millions of miles away and yet we can't get a decent mobile signal & broadband in Brecon & Radnor.

Keep up Kirsty ... it's because of all those terrorists stranded in the Beacons, love. Teresa's master plan needs the not spots. Wales must sacrifice itself for the greater good, our national security.

Rural broadband is another Coalition disaster, isn't it?

Not entirely a disaster, just the usual fiasco.

Still BT got a free TV company out of it.

[ErnstRemarx]

lbert Owen MP retweeted
Kirsty Williams ‏@Kirsty_Williams Nov 18
Why can we communicate with a space probe millions of miles away and yet we can't get a decent mobile signal & broadband in Brecon & Radnor.

Keep up Kirsty ... it's because of all those terrorists stranded in the Beacons, love. Teresa's master plan needs the not spots. Wales must sacrifice itself for the greater good, our national security.

Rural broadband is another Coalition disaster, isn't it?

Certainly is, and affects my ward. For the want of 50 grand, I have residents who are on pitiful download speeds and who deserve better (but vote Tory, so my sympathy is tempered somewhat). The HSB rollout across the country is a fabulous earner - and transfer of assets, mind - for BT (the monopoly bidder and supplier; so much for 'the market') which will earn them about £1.2bn just to provide a shit service and wring their hands mouthing platitudes about 'market forces' as the reason they can't put in what's almost become a utility to most people.

[rebeccariots2]

Keep up Kirsty ... it's because of all those terrorists stranded in the Beacons, love. Teresa's master plan needs the not spots. Wales must sacrifice itself for the greater good, our national security.

Rural broadband is another Coalition disaster, isn't it?

Certainly is, and affects my ward. For the want of 50 grand, I have residents who are on pitiful download speeds and who deserve better (but vote Tory, so my sympathy is tempered somewhat). The HSB rollout across the country is a fabulous earner - and transfer of assets, mind - for BT (the monopoly bidder and supplier; so much for 'the market') which will earn them about £1.2bn just to provide a shit service and wring their hands mouthing platitudes about 'market forces' as the reason they can't put in what's almost become a utility to most people.

Well governments - national and local - are pretty much making it a utility aren't they. Increasingly hard to access key information and services without it.

Wales is doing its own thing re rollout of broadband. To give them some credit there has been a huge push by a lot of the AMs to get harder to reach communities connected - with a variety of subsidised options - and a big drive on superfast cymru installation. We are supposed to get HSB to parts of the Cardigan area by early next year. Over the past few months we've had masses of Openreach vans and temporary traffic lights popping up everywhere. We're waiting to see what we are able to receive - if anything. Have heard that the fibre to the cabinet option then along the old line to your house - which is the best we could get - is not much cop if you live any further than 50 metres from the cabinet...

[ErnstRemarx]

A little refresher before the revisionism kicks in on Friday.


' “It will be like Newark on crack cocaine,” the minister said. “The PM has concluded that losing Rochester and Strood would be so damaging to his reputation that he has to throw everything at it.” '
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... ation.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's a good article and outlines exactly what the problem is for Cameron (as usual, barely mentioned by the meeja).

Even on 18th October, it was all derring do, rah rah, we'll see them off; now it's apparently 'factored in' that they'll be well beaten and will attempt to highlight it as Labour's failure (somehow, but I imagine the meeja will play along).

This, remember, is the man who couldn't win in 2010 when presented with the equivalent of an open goal. It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out what'll happen the day after the election in 2015. He'll be gone. The Tories don't tolerate public failure under any circumstances and if they don't get back in that's two strikes against Cameron. There will be no mercy given and there won't be a third strike.

UKIP will win, I have no doubt, and then it's simply a case of watching the fallout. The Tories won't replace Cameron before the election - they wouldn't dare, and it would be stupid in any case - but Cameron will be a diminished figure and will be limping on until May.

The meeja of course will support him wholeheartedly. The story will be the failure of Labour to regain the seat (ignoring boundary and demographic changes) and how this is a disaster for Miliband.

But rest assured: the 1992 Committee will be meeting and the men in the grey suits will be weighing which one of them will be handing over a bottle of scotch and a revolver after the general election.

[Hobiejoe]

Keep up Kirsty ... it's because of all those terrorists stranded in the Beacons, love. Teresa's master plan needs the not spots. Wales must sacrifice itself for the greater good, our national security.

Rural broadband is another Coalition disaster, isn't it?

Certainly is, and affects my ward. For the want of 50 grand, I have residents who are on pitiful download speeds and who deserve better (but vote Tory, so my sympathy is tempered somewhat). The HSB rollout across the country is a fabulous earner - and transfer of assets, mind - for BT (the monopoly bidder and supplier; so much for 'the market') which will earn them about £1.2bn just to provide a shit service and wring their hands mouthing platitudes about 'market forces' as the reason they can't put in what's almost become a utility to most people.

See also the newly privatised "Royal" Mail whinging that a teeny drop in profits in their parcels division is going to "force" them to drop the centuries old guarantee of a letter delivered anywhere in the nation for the price of a stamp. Didn't take them long, did it?

Any sign of a media kerfuffle....? No.

[ErnstRemarx]

Rural broadband is another Coalition disaster, isn't it?

Certainly is, and affects my ward. For the want of 50 grand, I have residents who are on pitiful download speeds and who deserve better (but vote Tory, so my sympathy is tempered somewhat). The HSB rollout across the country is a fabulous earner - and transfer of assets, mind - for BT (the monopoly bidder and supplier; so much for 'the market') which will earn them about £1.2bn just to provide a shit service and wring their hands mouthing platitudes about 'market forces' as the reason they can't put in what's almost become a utility to most people.

See also the newly privatised "Royal" Mail whinging that a teeny drop in profits in their parcels division is going to "force" them to drop the centuries old guarantee of a letter delivered anywhere in the nation for the price of a stamp. Didn't take them long, did it?

Any sign of a media kerfuffle....? No.

What did expect? Detailed analysis of the situation and a reasoned conclusion. Sorry mate, you've got the wrong meeja.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Government provided a briefing in August on the broadband programme.

It tries to make it sound like things have improved since the NAO slated them.

On 5 July 2013 the NAO reported on the Government’s broadband programme. The report
notes that Departmental forecasts predict the programme will complete its rollout 22 months
later than originally planned. The NAO report was followed by a series of select committee
inquiries.
On 7 August 2014, DCMS published figures showing that the programme had extended
superfast broadband to more than 1 million homes and businesses across the UK and was
on course to extend superfast broadband to 95% of UK homes and businesses by 2017.

Which is what they told the NAO at the time, so not great progress.
And no mention now of specifically rural broadband.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Reckless promising more defections if he wins is quite clever.

If Labour, vote for him and bring on the shit for Cameron.

Though he might be bullshitting.

[ErnstRemarx]

Government provided a briefing in August on the broadband programme.

It tries to make it sound like things have improved since the NAO slated them.

On 5 July 2013 the NAO reported on the Government’s broadband programme. The report
notes that Departmental forecasts predict the programme will complete its rollout 22 months
later than originally planned. The NAO report was followed by a series of select committee
inquiries.
On 7 August 2014, DCMS published figures showing that the programme had extended
superfast broadband to more than 1 million homes and businesses across the UK and was
on course to extend superfast broadband to 95% of UK homes and businesses by 2017.

Which is what they told the NAO at the time, so not great progress.
And no mention now of specifically rural broadband.

You're absolutely right. They've fucked it up massively, and they can't see that relying on commercial providers to play nicely will work about as well as it has in the water, electricity, gas and other privatised industries, ie, not at all. If it were their money, I'd be happy for them to piss it up the wall; but it isn't, it's mine and yours.

[RogerOThornhill]

Interesting...

odysseanproject
‏@odysseanproject
Odd of Chris W to have banned DfE officials from my talk tho it does illustrate my point re institutional unwillingness to face criticism

[ErnstRemarx]

Interesting...

odysseanproject
‏@odysseanproject
Odd of Chris W to have banned DfE officials from my talk tho it does illustrate my point re institutional unwillingness to face criticism

Who dat?

[RogerOThornhill]

Interesting...

odysseanproject
‏@odysseanproject
Odd of Chris W to have banned DfE officials from my talk tho it does illustrate my point re institutional unwillingness to face criticism

Who dat?

Odysseanproject is Dominic Cummings and Chris W is Chris Wormald who is Perm Sec at the DfE...

[ErnstRemarx]

Interesting...

odysseanproject
‏@odysseanproject
Odd of Chris W to have banned DfE officials from my talk tho it does illustrate my point re institutional unwillingness to face criticism

Who dat?

Odysseanproject is Dominic Cummings and Chris W is Chris Wormald who is Perm Sec at the DfE...

Ah. OK; illuminating...

[RogerOThornhill]

Who dat?

Odysseanproject is Dominic Cummings and Chris W is Chris Wormald who is Perm Sec at the DfE...

Ah. OK; illuminating...

Yeah, I get the impression that they're not at all happy with him spilling the beans about what went on at the DfE...which is not surprising. Sounds chaotic most of the time. Not that surprising given that Gove was in charge,