Liberal Democrat 2015 Manifesto – Continue with Broadband Delivery UK

The Liberal Democrat party has today published their Manifesto for the coming 2015 General Election and it will come as little surprise to find that their approach to broadband connectivity is largely a mirror for the current Broadband Delivery UK programme, which as a party of Government they had a hand in creating.

As stated before, ISPreview.co.uk remains a broadly political neutral website and over the past 16 years we’ve been just as happy to praise, as well as criticise, the failings of both past and present Government’s with equal measure. In that sense we tend to judge political policies by how detailed, practical and economically viable they are, but we’ll avoid saying X is better than Z; that’s for you to judge.

Otherwise today’s Liberal Democrat 2015 Manifesto mentions the word “broadband” exactly three times and centres on the following core commitment.

The Libdem Policy on Broadband (2015 Manifesto)

“[We will] complete the rollout of high-speed broadband, to reach almost every household (99.9%) in the UK as well as small businesses in both rural and urban areas.”

The pledge appears to go slightly beyond what they told us on Saturday, when a spokesperson said, “Our aim as a party is to roll out superfast broadband to 95% of UK homes and businesses by 2017” (here). Never the less today’s commitment remains broadly in-line with the current coalition Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme and we gave a summary of that as part of yesterday’s Conservative Manifesto report (here).

Separately the Libdem’s are also proposing to introduce a new Digital Bill of Rights, which would enshrine the digital rights of the citizen. Part of this involves safeguarding the essential freedom of the Internet and backing Net Neutrality (i.e. treating all Internet traffic as equal). The Libdem’s have also pledged to oppose new Internet Snooping laws (e.g. Revised Comms Data Bill) and would set stricter limits on surveillance.

However it’s unclear how much of the above would survive if the Libdem’s entered into a new coalition Government, which would require another round of compromises.