United Kingdom - 2024 General Election

Like so many other countries the United Kingdom is having a general election in 2024. This was called for July 4th, by the Prime Minister memorably standing in Downing Street in the pouring rain without a hat or an umbrella. France followed suit, with its own precipitate election to the Assemblée nationale.?

The outcome of the UK election seems to have been determined long ago, with limited movement in the polls for the Labour Party, which is expected to win a convincing and possibly overwhelming majority. The losers of the election seem also to be known in advance, the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party, in both cases raising existential questions. The Conservative Party has suffered not only from deep unpopularity, but also from scandals (e.g., Partygate and betting on the date of the election) and the rise of the faragiste Reform UK Ltd on the far right. Predicting numbers of seats in the House of Commons is very difficult, given the first past the post system and uncertainties about turnout by the various groups.

All sorts of parties produce manifestos, a tradition dating back to Benjamin Disraeli. Mostly, these are wish lists, since the parties have no hope of winning a majority or of becoming a partner in a coalition, some will not even win a single seat. Provincial manifestos may be pitched at future elections to devolved legislatures. All sorts of non-parties make contributions, such as charities and the medical royal colleges, in the hope that their issues and policies will be taken up by the new government.

Telecommunications rarely features prominently in UK manifestos. An exception was 2019, when the Conservative Party promised a fibre for every home, matched by the Labour Party and to be free at the point of delivery, provided by a new state-owned British Broadband Company. 2024 was a reversion to a much lower level of promises.

Broadband

The Conservative Party claims “We are set to achieve at least 85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025 and nationwide coverage by 2030”, though this avoids the question of whether availability is being turned into adoption. The Labour Party concurs on the 2030 target, but also leaves open the question of turning infrastructure into use of services.

The Christian People’s Action Party, somewhat anachronistically, called for superfast broadband in “every part of the country”. More difficult to understand is its desire that infrastructure respect “Christian values”.?

The Green Party is unusually vague, not specifying the technology, throughput or the funding mechanism, for its somewhat coercive policy:

“We will give BT and other public telecommunications operators an obligation to provide affordable high-speed broadband-capable infrastructure to every business and to every household.”

The Scottish Greens claim “domestic broadband connections should be treated as an essential utility and delivered by a publicly owned network and provider”, presumably entailing the nationalisation of BT, Virgin Media and the ISPs.

Liberal Democrats emphasise that no property should be left out, raising unanswered questions about how to reach the most remote locations and the very high cost.?

Plaid Cymru called for a Welsh Broadband Infrastructure Company, possibly state-owned.?

The SNP called for a “statutory social tariff for energy, broadband and mobile charges for all

who need one”. This would require massive subsidies from taxpayers or cross-subsidies from other users, thus raising prices.?

5G wireless?

There were very many fewer mentions of 5G than fixed broadband.?

The Conservatives offer the vague “Our ambition is for all populated areas to be covered by ‘standalone’ 5G mobile connectivity and to keep the UK at the forefront of adopting and developing 6G.”

The Labour Party claims “investment in 5G is falling behind other countries” and wants full national 5G coverage by 2030.

Reform UK includes 5G and 6G? in the metadata of its non-manifesto, but makes no commitment or mention in the text.

Online Safety Act

Parliament only completed this legislation in 2023, after many disagreements. The Act requires social media firms to protect children from illegal or harmful content online and delegates powers to OFCOM.

The Labour Party promises to “build on the Online Safety Act, bringing forward provisions as

quickly as possible, and explore further measures to keep everyone safe online, particularly when using social media.”

The Alliance Party called for measures building on the Online Safety Act requiring verification for social media accounts. It also wants the creation of a Digital Bill of Rights.?

The LibDems called for “an independent advocacy body for children’s safety online” and for “a new Online Crime Agency to effectively tackle illegal content and activity online, such as personal fraud, revenge porn and threats and incitement to violence on social media.” It also wants a Digital Bill of Rights.?

Platforms

Christian People’s Action Party proposes a turnover tax, effectively a sales tax, on the major platforms.?

Scottish Greens would require social media platforms to have legal responsibility for content

published on their site.?

The Scottish Family Party wants to “prevent monopolistic social media corporations from acting individually or as a cartel to skew public debate.”

The Traditional Unionist Voice wants an “Online Delivery Tax at 4% for large, multinational enterprises to create a fairer playing field for high streets”.

Interception

The Lib Dems called for an end to the “bulk collection of communications data and internet connection records”.

Regulatory governance?

The Conservative Party wants to “Bring quango spending under control”, which is strange given it has been in office for over a decade and had many opportunities to do so. It also wants to “Using our Brexit freedoms to deliver regulatory reform”. “We will go further to transform the UK regulatory landscape, making sure regulators deliver the best outcomes for business, consumers and the environment.”

The Labour Party “will create a new Regulatory Innovation Office, bringing together existing functions across government. This office will help regulators update regulation, speed up approval timelines, and co-ordinate issues that span existing boundaries.”

Christian People’s Action Party wants to “get rid of masses of wasteful quangos”, “abolish the majority of quangos” and “Undertake a major review to reform the regulatory system and quangos”.?

Reform UK Ltd wants to scrap “unnecessary” QUANGOs, claiming the public would not notice if “dozens were scrapped”. It does not indicate the criteria needed to identify those for elimination or the resulting savings, which are part of ￡50 billion overall savings from “wasteful” government spending.

Scottish Greens want media policy to be devolved and the creation of a Scottish Media Authority.?

The SNP wants broadcasting devolved.?

The SDP says it would “conduct a zero-based efficiency review of all public and government bodies, including quangos.”

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) wants to bring BT back into state-ownership, but does not mention other firms that were never state-owned.

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Manifestos and policy statements examined: Alba Party (Scotland), Alliance Party (Northern Ireland), Christian People’s Action Party, Conservative (UK, Scotland and Wales), Communist Party of Great Britain, Green Party (England, Scotland and Wales), Independence for Scotland Party, Labour Party (UK, Scotland and Wales), Liberal Democrats (UK and Scotland), Official Monster Raving Loony Party, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK Ltd, Social Democratic Party, Scottish Family Party, Sinn Féin (Northern Ireland), Scottish National Party, Socialist Labour Party, Traditional Unionist Voice (Northern Ireland), Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, Workers Party of Britain, and Workers Revolutionary Party.