I have just been listening to Claire Fox of the Brexit Party on Any Questions [15Nov2019].  She strongly opposes  Labour’s Policy to take BT Open Reach into public ownership and embark on a plan to roll out a full fibre network to be universally available and free to all, by 2030.   Ms Fox supports public ownership in other sectors, such as transport; her objection in this case is that she fears the state will misuse its ownership of such a network to spy on us. This is not the first time I have heard this argument: I don’t expect it will be the last.

Ownership of internet infrastructure is not a prerequisite for using it for malign purpose: we have only to consider the record of Cambridge Analytica who harvested Facebook Profiles to support the Vote Leave campaign by targeted advertising;  or the role of Russian actors in hacking Hillary Clinton’s emails: however, ownership by a democratically elected government, constrained by a free press and held accountable at elections, is surely preferable to ownership by private companies accountable, above all other considerations, to their shareholders. 

Still,  public ownership of a network which carries an infinity of private, personal and otherwise sensitive information, requires a  discussion of how this resource may be protected from unwarranted covert surveillance. There is a case for police and security services to have some managed access to the network in the interest of catching criminals and protecting us from terrorist threats. Parliament should naturally be at the centre of public debate  around such matters, and the drawing up of rules for oversight.   

Claire Fox’s attack on this Labour policy may have more to say about her antipathy to their policy on  Brexit and her desire to damage their electoral prospects. A full fibre broadband network, free to everyone in the same way as our network of roads, seems a strong policy with a potential to invigorate every corner of  UK life: business, education, health, culture, social, and personal. Affordability? Well that’s a discussion for another place.