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.