Big step forward for superfast broadband
I have been arguing for over a year now that BT should open up its ducts and pipes to allow other companies to lay fibre. Why does this matter? Because the UK has some of the slowest broadband speeds in the developed world, and this is massively hampering our ability to be a European hub for the digital and creative industries (for which I am responsible). Government estimates suggest the cost of a superfast broadband network could be up to £30 bn, far too much for one company to manage on its own. Hence my suggestion of allowing other companies to use BT's ducts.
This was vigourously opposed by the government. Indeed I had a debate live on Channel Four news with Stephen Carter, the then Communications Minister, about the whether it was feasible.
This morning Ian Livingston is quoted in the FT as saying he is willing to allow other people to use BT's ducts, something he confirmed to me this afternoon. Having been a lone voice arguing for this for over a year now, I am delighted. It also brings George Osborne's target that Britain should be the first major European country with 100 mbps speed for the majority of the country one step closer - and shows you can - sometimes - achieve things in opposition.
Posted on 8 February 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Twitter
Following my recent foray into the world of Facebook it was only a matter of time before I took on the world of twitter. You can follow my tweets under the name @Jeremy_Hunt
Posted on 8 February 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Sir Thomas Legg
I was not on the Sir Thomas Legg's list of MPs needing to repay yesterday. However where I have identified mistakes in my expenses myself I have published them online on the expenses section of my website in the interests of transparency.
Predictably my Lib Dem opponent locally has tried to claim that the reason I was not on Legg's list is because he did not look at MPs under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Not true. Although for obvious reasons Legg did not investigate the same matters as the Commissioner, he did investigate everything else. I supplied him with copious information about my mortgage claims (as was reported as doing so in the Surrey Advertiser) and he found there was nothing untoward.
With respect to the parliamentary commissioner's enquiry, I did repay some money although he confirmed that the arrangements made with my agent were done with no personal financial gain to myself or my local party - as I explained here http://www.jeremyhunt.org/text.aspx?id=123
Posted on 5 February 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Politics and World at One
Today I was a guest on the Daily Politics Show. I explained the Conservative stance on the BBC Trust and also gave my thoughts on todays Prime Ministers Questions. Following that I appeared with Peter Hain MP and Sarah Teather MP on the World at One on Radio 4 where we discussed the economy and defence issues. Click here to watch the Daily Politics again and here to listen to WATO again (around 12 mins in).
Posted on 3 February 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Where are your policies Ben?
I note with wry amusement that Ben Bradshaw is claiming a Tory u-turn on broadband policy on his blog http://www.benbradshaw.co.uk/blog/
Let me scotch that right away. We have never opposed the use of the licence fee to support the roll out of Digital Britain. It is happening at the moment with Digital Switchover, which we support, so our suggestion to extend this into the next licence fee settlement from 2012 to support superfast rural broadband is logical and consistent. What we don't agree with is using the licence fee to support other broadcasters - something that would make them channel all their energy into getting more subsidy from government rather than attracting more viewers.
The substantive question is rather what is the government's policy on superfast broadband? They have, it is true, proposed a phone tax. Apart from the fact that it would be grossly unfair on the 3m people who have a phone but no broadband, it will raise only a pitiful £175m a year - nothing like the nearly £30bn the government's own broadband stakeholder group says will be necessary.
Which is why our policy, to break open BT's monopoly on infrastructure and allow other private sector providers to use BT's pipes and ducts to lay fibre, is so significant. Countries like Korea and Singapore have the most modern broadband networks in the world - with the private sector providing 95% of the investment in the former and 75% in the latter. We can do the same.
But that can only happen with the right regulatory structure, something in which the government has shown little or no interest. Shame the Culture Secretary is more interested in blogging against me than introducing policies that might actually give us the broadband network we need.
Posted on 2 February 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Haslemere Hospital - battle ahead?
I am seriously worried about the on-going closure of one of the two wards at Haslemere Hospital. This was supposed to be "temporary" in order to allow deep-cleaning to happen over Christmas. But the closure has now been extended indefinitely. Both the Godwin Unit and Elizabeth Ward are outstanding centres of excellence - and the latter in particular vital to the local Haslemere community. The concern is that the PCT seems to believe that all care can take place either at home or in an acute hospital - when all the evidence points that community hospital beds are not just popular, they are very cost effective. The other concern is over salami-slicing: Chris Butler, the PCT Chief Executive, has apparently said that community hospitals are not viable with less than 30 beds. So how long does he give Haslemere with only half that number of beds? He only became Chief Executive after the last fight to save the hospital. I hope someone tells him that we had half the town out on a march to protest.
Posted on 29 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Facebook
Yesterday I set up my very own facebook page. Better late than never! I plan to use it to let constituents and anyone else who is interested know what I am up to in both my work as an MP and as a Shadow Cabinet member www.facebook.com/jeremyhuntmp.
Posted on 27 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Bring back reading
This week Steve Jobs will launch the Apple iSlate (or whatever he decides to call it), Apple's latest gadget that is supposed to revolutionise reading in the same way iPods have revolutionised music. It is apparently going to address the fact that 40% of Americans read one book or less per annum. No doubt the statistics are equally depressing in the UK. I am quite old fashioned in my love of books - I always think there is something rather sacriligious about throwing away even a trashy book. But if new e-readers mean more people read more "books" then more power to their elbow.
Posted on 25 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Snow: progress with Surrey County Council
Had a good meeting with John Hilder of Surrey County Council and local residents from Rowledge and Haslemere this afternoon. It seems like the basic issues are:
* Designation of roads which need to be prioritised for clearing. Because this has been decided centrally, there are some illogicalities which mean large villages like Rowledge end up being cut off
* Grit bins: Surrey's database of grit bins is not complete which means some bins were not refilled. Others had their salt stolen shortly after being stocked up. They are updating the database on the basis of information now being provided by members of the public and considering whether more local responsibility for keeping them stocked up could work more efficiently.
* Information: no one knew whether they should or should not be clearing the snow/ice from in front of their pavement - or indeed other useful facts like the fact that cat litter can work just as well as salt. Nor did anyone really know who was in charge. This kind of information needs to be made more widely available online, and Surrey should potentially have a network of locally elected members who take responsibility in emergencies.
* Farmers: could we set up a network of volunteer farmers authorised to clear the roads? They are not able to farm when it snows and many may have tractors that could clear the snow without damaging the roads.
I will follow this up when I meet David McNulty, Surrey Chief Executive. We all accept this was 'freak' weather, but we need to make sure we are better prepared next time.
Posted on 22 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Labour's Broadband Tax
I am giving a speech to the Oxford Media Convention later today reiterating our oppostion to the Government’s plans to tax every phone line in the UK. This will hit hardworking families and businesses alike and worryingly could make make broadband unaffordable for nearly 200,000 homes. They want to use this tax to pay for high speed broadband but are ignoring alternative plans which could deliver the same without the need for public subsidy. You can read all about this in today’s issue of The Sun.
Posted on 21 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Labour and the Arts (cont)
Charlotte Higgins of the Guardian has just done a pretty fair blog of my arts speech to the RSA last week. The extraordinary point is that Labour, the self-styled party of the arts, is coming up to the general election with no arts policies. Look how Margaret Hodge dodges my question in yesterday's Oral Questions:
Mr. Jeremy Hunt (South-West Surrey) (Con): Like the Government, I am very happy to confirm that we fully support the policy of free admission to museums. Unlike the Government, however, we are prepared to be much more honest about the financial challenges ahead. Last week, the Secretary of State told the RSA that he was confident that he would be able to sustain funding for the arts and culture, yet at the same time he has cut funding for the Tate, the Science Museum, the national museums of Liverpool, and the Wallace collection. So should the arts world believe what the Government say, or what they do?
Margaret Hodge: First, I hope that you, Mr. Speaker, will allow me to draw attention to the apparent split in the Conservative party between the Front-Bench spokesperson and the Mayor of London, who consistently says publicly what some Opposition Front-Bench Members say privately about the policy of free admissions. May I also invite the hon. Gentleman to write to me with the details of these alleged cuts, because what I see from all the figures in front of me is that we have recently been able to find additional resources to enable the Tate to go forward with its further development, and that all other museums have enjoyed an increase in this comprehensive spending review?
Mr. Hunt: I would be happy to do so, and also to send the Minister details of a leaked Treasury document saying that non-ring-fenced Departments would face funding cuts of 17 per cent. in order to meet Government spending requirements. We have announced policies to help the arts get through this difficult period, such as reforming the lottery, boosting philanthropy and cutting arts administration. Those are our policies; what are the Government's?
Margaret Hodge: The hon. Gentleman's policies are akin simply to moving the deckchairs on the Titanic. Cutting the lottery fund from many of the very good causes to which it currently contributes in order to substitute for Government funding is no answer. Let me also say to him that we have yet to enter into discussions about the next CSR, but he will be aware that we on this team secured a very good settlement last time, although there were cuts across Government. I have no doubt that we can in future persuade our colleagues about the importance of investment in arts and culture from the taxpayer, not through the lottery.
Posted on 19 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
It doesn't have to be this way....
Took a look at the situation in Rowledge for myself today. It is a small village only accessibly by hilly roads on all sides. What they are asking for is hardly unreasonable - a simple commitment that the council will keep one of the access roads open during freak weather such as this week's. The snow was piled up on the roads around the main area in the middle of the village and I actually got my car stuck in the snow trying to manoevre it around.
I spoke to someone who works at a local surgery: she said that medicines had been running out and on two occasions an ambulance was unable to reach the surgery to pick up someone in an emergency situation. You also think about the older people who are literally trapped in their homes, terrified of falling at an age when falls can have serious consequences.
I am afraid this whole thing makes me even more of a localist. No council can reasonably be expected to deal with every occurrence of freak weather. But when the response is the responsibility of a hapless local official harassed on all sides and trying to cope with a slashed budget, what chance is there of a sensible response? With elected local leadership with real financial accountability to local people (as opposed to Whitehall), these kind of problems become much more solveable. Not least because a local elected mayor would be able to mobilise farmers, the voluntary sector and active citizens to put hand to shovel or tractor and actually clear some of the snow away.
Posted on 15 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Snow chaos (cont)
Just done a phone in with BBC Surrey to take questions on the snow crisis. This time there were a lot of callers from Farnham - Boundstone Road, Sandrock Hill Road and Rowledge - as well as one from Busbridge in Godalming. Rowledge in particular has suffered: neither Surrey or Hampshire councils seem to be taking responsibility to ensure there is at least one road accessible in and out of the town. Someone alluded to the good old days when these things were the responsibility of Farnham Town Council, and I must admit I had a lot of sympathy. Councils can't sort out these crises all on their own, but a locally elected mayor might stand a better chance of mobilising the community to sort of the situation.
Have written a strong letter to David McNulty at Surrey County Council - but in the end it isn't letters that people want, it is roads they can use.
Listen again to my phone in session on BBC Surrey here (I was on from 7:10am)
Posted on 14 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Labour and the arts
Speaking to the RSA tomorrow about Conservative arts policy. There is a sort of lazy assumption I want to put right, namely that when comes to the arts Labour = good and Tory = bad. The last Conservative government did two highly significant things for the arts: it set up the Dept for National Heritage (later the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) which gave the arts a seat at Cabinet, and it founded the National Lottery, which has generated over £4 bn for the arts totally transforming its funding. What about cuts in government spending? Well Labour is hardly on strong ground here as they have already started cutting the arts budget themselves. A more balanced view would be to say that whilst Labour has often been better at recognising the importance of the arts in its rhetoric, the Conservatives have been better at ensuring they have a solid, long-term and sustainable funding base.
Posted on 13 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Snow Chaos
Why is freak weather so difficult to cope with in this country when we have it so often it is hardly freak anymore? I have been getting daily distress emails from constituents about the difficulties they have faced in the recent adverse weather. Surrey has been particularly affected with up to a foot of snow falling last week. It seems that the County Council did not have good enough plans in place - particularly a lack of grit. Admittedly they are not the only council, but it is particularly distressing for a town like Haslemere (and the hillier parts of Farnham) when none of the B roads are being gritted, potentially trapping people who do not drive in their houses. And it isn't just about getting to the shops. When we had the power cut in Haslemere, the power company complained they found it difficult to access the problem due to treacherous road conditions. We have to do better.
Posted on 11 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
Wisdom of Crowds Theory
Last week we announced a truly radical policy that will transform the way Government works. If we win the Election we’ll run a competition to come up the best new technology that will let large groups of people get together online and develop new policies. We’ll put all of our Green Papers on this new system and allow the public to comment on new legislation during a Public Reading Stage.
This is exactly the sort of decentralisation of power that the internet allows and something that I’ve talked about before. As I said in the Telegraph a few weeks ago technology should allow politicians to reconnect with the electorate. By encouraging a genuine dialogue over difficult policy issues it has the power to transform the relationship we have with the people who give us our jobs.
As with all genuinely radical ideas it got a bit of stick. And sadly, the reaction from the other major parties shows just how badly most politicians misunderstand this whole area. Some critics focused on the prize element of our announcement. They seem to have missed the fact that many Governments over the years have used prizes as a way of incentivising certain activities. Both NESTA and the Ministry of Defence have used them recently for instance.
More worrying is that both Labour and the Liberal Democrats argued that there were already plenty of ways of using social networking sites to consult the public. Indeed there are – and the Conservatives make full use of Facebook, Twitter and blogs. We’ve even designed our own at www.myconservatives.com
But this isn’t what we’re talking about. We want to develop a new platform that allows people to comment on policies, that aggregates these comments, and presents them in a usable way. We want to find a way to make use of people’s comments in a constructive way. Perhaps they could be ranked depending on their expertise or particular experiences. This isn’t more of the same but a really exciting and new use of technology.
There’s no platform out there as yet that fits this bill. But if we win the next election I’m sure there’s someone out there creative enough to provide one. In my mind that would be £1m well spent.
Posted on 5 January 2010 by Jeremy Hunt
The Daily Telegraph
In today’s Daily Telegraph I argue that the internet gives people more power over their lives – and over their leaders too. You can read my article here.
Posted on 22 December 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Polls narrowing
Interesting to see the speculation over the narrowing of the polls.
I have always thought these kinds of changes are entirely predictable. This is not because of any fundamental change in the electorate's view of the two main parties, but because these days virtually everyone under the age of 50 (and many people over the age of 50) are floating voters. Margaret Thatcher tore up the rule that working class people tend to vote Labour, and Tony Blair tore up the rule that said that middle class people tend to vote Conservative. So politics is massively less tribal, and voters much more inclined to make up their minds for themselves as an election draws nearer. And quite right too.
However I still think the defining question of the next election campaign will be whether or not people want 5 more years of Gordon Brown so Labour should not draw too much cheer.
Posted on 15 December 2009 by Jeremy Hunt
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
The Committee for Standards and Privileges has just published its report on me concerning the issue of my agent's use of my Farnham home. Essentially I allowed my agent to stay free of charge mid-week to save her having to commute back to Sussex. The report that I did not benefit personally from the arrangement and did not use taxpayers funds to subsidise the local Conservative party. However I accept that because someone else was using the house – albeit free of charge – I should have reduced the amount claimed and so I have offered to repay £9,558.50 accordingly. I am very relieved the investigation is now over - and particularly welcome the confirmation by the committee that this was a misunderstanding of the rules which involved no personal financial benefit to me. You can read the full report here
Posted on 11 December 2009 by Jeremy Hunt