The UKIP Manifesto 2015 – Devoid of Broadband and Internet Pledges

The UK Independence Party has today become the latest political party to publish their Manifesto for the imminent 2015 General Election. But those hoping for a firm commitment to improve national broadband connectivity may be disappointed.

Firstly, 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.

As a political party UKIP has seen plenty of controversy and praise (depending upon which side of the fence you sit), primarily over its focus on immigration and Europe. But as a result we know precious little about their viewpoints on other aspects, such as broadband connectivity and related infrastructure. In that sense today’s UKIP 2015 Manifesto release was an opportunity to fill in some of those gaps.

But unfortunately we don’t have a lot of writing to do because the UKIP Manifesto 2015 doesn’t even mention the word “broadband” and they only mention “Internet” twice, which is in relation to tackling crime rather than improving digital inclusion or connectivity. At least that explains why our hails to their PR wing went unanswered.