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[UncleUB]

More than 270,000 free laptops with broadband will be given away to low income familes under a new Government scheme.

Gordon Brown says he wants all families to be linked up to their children's schools via the internet.

That way they can access progress reports on attainment, behaviour and other needs, he said.

http://tinyurl.com/yk9pjcg


What planet is he on..........

How many of these will actually be used for school work. 

[kitz]

To make that achievable, he will pledge £300m of investment

../snip/..

home access programme to get laptops and broadband at home for 270,000 families.

Now if Ive done my maths right - thats £1,111.00 per laptop!

Crikey what the heck is he giving away... or is a lot of it going to be swallowed in admin costs.
TBH I think its ridiculous and its almost as if broadband has become more of an invaluable commodity than other services such as heating or health facilities.

I mean its not like these families wont have access at schools or libraries is it?
Wonder how many of these families will have sky or the kids have Wii's.   

[BritBrat]

Could be usefull when schools are closed due to bad weather as the kids can still be doing school work and teachers working from home

I can see a lot of laptops ending up on flea bay.

Now if Ive done my maths right - thats £1,111.00 per laptop!

They should be able to buy them for £250 easy.

Anyway laptops do not have a long life span and desktops would be a better idea and not so mobile (nickable).

[kitz]

>> They should be able to buy them for £250 easy.

Im sure somewhere like Dell or Medion would happily put together some sort of budget type laptop..  after all  if they are going to be used for school work  they wont need things like the latest and greatest of graphics cards etc will they? 

[UncleUB]

I'm sure they will be put to good use....

Dad =Porn,and gambling

Mum = Bingo

Kids =FaceBook,YouTube and online gaming

and when you get fed up,weigh it in for beer money. 

[silversurfer44]

That'll be another tax on us using telephones then

[poppy]

I've heard say that you only appreciate what you have actually worked for.
I've had extensive experience of working with folk as described in the article and I can safely say that most will be ruined or sold for drugs, booze, ciggies or all three within one week of ownership.
No wonder the average taxpayer is becoming increasingly angry (including me). 

[oldfogy]

Just like the "Internet for all" scheme, this is just another one of those "STUPID" government exercises to "Supposedly" make jobs and keep people in work.
All I can really say is what a load of old tosh!!

Sorry got visitors so have to go.

Saved by the bell you might say.

[scottiesmum]

I don't know who increases my blood pressure more,  this idiot man or his predecessor         Another pathetic election ploy     

[orainsear]

I'm sure I read that included in the deal is 1 years free internet.  Presumably the cost is a bit higher due to support/warranty?  Even so £1,100 does rather excessive!

Hopefully some of these machines do get to less privileged children.

[kitz]

Even if you made an allowance for the Internet, thats still well over £1000 for the laptop.

Bearing in mind you can get half decent  broadband access from £5.99 with Plusnet depending on where you live.
I dont think Im being unrealistic assuming most of these families will likely live in large towns/cities and therefore be on market1 or have LLU available... or even be able to get it free with their sky TV.

Ok some of the cheaper offerings may not be that good and you may not be able to download p2p type stuff very quick..  but its not about providing access for that kind of downloading is it.   Its meant to be just for mail and surfing the internet for research isnt it?

Makes you wonder if those in power have any idea of what a PC and internet is all about.

[UncleUB]

Makes you wonder if those in power have any idea of what a PC and internet is all about.

Who actually came up with this scheme before it was passed to the PM?

Who ever it was hasn't got a clue about what goes off/is going off in Britain today.........

[orainsear]

Any idea who the ISP and hardware providers are likely to be?

Someone is going to be making some serious money out of this....

[stevie]

I`ve read this a few times & I`m missing something or theres something missing from the article....

To be honest I think theres something missing between the Ears of the PM &/OR His advisors...

I think I`ll have to come back to this...........Cause I can`t think of a sensible thing to actually say....

If it wasn`t for the fact this comes from the PM & HM Government I`d say Lord Sutch was advising the Government, but He sadly passed in 1999, maybe Gordon would be better Re-Naming the Labour Party to "The Lunatics Party"........Given Kitz`s figures the mind boogles at what sort of Laptop they`ll be dishing out? I`d guess they like the look of Alienware or Acer`s Ferrari Lappy`s!!!!

[stevie]

Any idea who the ISP and hardware providers are likely to be?

Someone is going to be making some serious money out of this....

Just a guess, an ISP/Hardware supplier that offers "Best Value" (a core requirement for ALL Local Authories" AKA "Councils" <they object to being called Councils>), so you can presume that means "Cheapest!!!", now I know & I`d hazard a guess that most on here also know that Cheapest isn`t always VFM...........But we aren`t talking common sense or even sense....

So a guess....NO WAY BeThere/O2...I`d hazard a guess at Virgin Media or TalkTalk or maybe BT, or maybe thats where all the money is required for the commitees/divisions required within the Councils to assess, monitor, proactively push this concept & of course the Administration for it...Laptop £150, ADSL £100/yr & ongoing Admin £900........Makes sense.....