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back to article Lib Dem mayor candidate jumps aboard muni Wi-Fi failboat

Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrats' London mayoral hopeful, has pledged to build a city-wide free Wi-Fi network, despite the high failure rate of similar projects internationally. The former plod said he would fund the £7.5m scheme by cancelling Transport for London's advertising budget. Each borough would have its own start …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    London Mayor

    As a non-londoner, who works there, I find myself in the position whereby I have no say as to the policies that will be undertaken in the city, which will directly affect me. I find this concerning.

    Also, I have always been a very political person, but I find myself in the unexpected position that I hope all of the candidates loose.

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  2. Chronos
    Joke

    Where is...

    ...the picture? May I suggest this as being apposite: http://www.shipmentoffail.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/pressanykeny.png

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  3. Ishkandar
    Dead Vulture

    Yet another "expert" talking from the wrong end of his alimentary canal...

    Does he have any idea of the cost of (1) setting up such a wide coverage of London and (2) maintaining this coverage at a usable level ??

    If he thinks he can just build a few towers to cover vast swathes of London, then he truly belongs the LSD* !! The radiation alone will totally destroy his Green credentials !! The alternative of building lots of little stations will cost more than the bribes for a defence contract !!

    Then there is the running cost per MB/per GB/per TB and the routine upkeep of the entire "system" !! Finally, there is the hostility of the other ISPs and he will have to build an entirely new company/organisation/lash up from scratch to operate that....thing !! I'd be hostile, too, if you try to steal my job !!

    If he naively thinks that ALL those costs will be covered by business advertising, then he is too naive to be the mayor of our fair (well, sort of greyish, actually) city !!

    * I mean the Liberal Social Democrats, not the other sort as some people might unkindly assume !!

    Iconic representation of his chances of being a mayor of London !!

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  4. S
    Unhappy

    Such a waste of money

    Why spend money providing such horrible bandwidth in the most connected city in England.

    It would be better off providing better wired connections that weren't capped at 24 megabit (if you're really lucky)...

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  5. Ishkandar

    And every poor person in London...

    ...will receive a free Wi-fi enabled laptop or PC from Santa this Christmas !!

    Whatever he's smoking, I want some of that !! Gotta be good shit, man !!

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  6. Spleen

    Political thinking at its finest

    Proving that the best you can hope for from career politicians is half-stupidity. Obviously the idea of clawing money back from a pointless activity (advertising for a government monopoly) and returning it to the people it was extorted from never occured to him - instead it has to be whacked into another pointless activity.

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  7. dervheid

    Glad...

    I'm not a Londoner.

    What a choice!

    "Brown Ken" Livingstone (used to be 'red', faded and mixed with a little 'green')

    or

    "Barking (Mad) Boris" Johnstone (Inspiration for many a 'Blonde' joke)

    or

    "Wi-Fi Bri" Paddick (aka the other guy)

    Not exactly much of an incentive to vote, is there?

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Phorm?

    Maybe he'll get Phorm to pay for it, and sell all the information that is carried? I'm sure there'll be no shortage of w^Hbankers sending unencrypted traffic. PPP at its best...

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    dervheid

    There's always the Christian Alliance. The bouncing purple ball on their advert has provided minutes of mindless entertainment for the feline members of my family, minutes they would normally have spent chewing my leg, and for that alone they get my vote.

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  10. Dangermouse

    @Fraser

    So do don't live in London, just work here - yes? Well, my Grandmother from Edinburgh has visited London a couple of times before and is coming up again next year so do you think she deserves a vote as well?

    After all, she will also have no say as to the policies that will be undertaken in the city, which will directly affect her when she comes to visit. How about my mate Dean in Sydney? He's coming here to work for 6 months next year. Should he get a vote as well? I occasionally work in San Francisco. Should I be able to vote there?

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pedant alert:

    Given that the year is currently 2008, aren't all cities currently existent "twenty-first" century cities? Aside from ancient ruins that people haven't lived in for hundreds of years, like Petra and Mesa Verde, couldn't any city with a population greater than one claim to be "twenty-first century"?

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Industry back-hander ALERT!!!

    WOW maybe i should hang out in london more with my War Driving setup hacking the numptys using the open (free to hack ) wi-fi idiots out there.

    should make a small fortune from raping thier free access PC's.

    Cheers Lib-Dems....

    really inspires confidence in politicians...., it shows just where thier loyalties are............filling thier own pockets from the industry that pushing an UN-safe, UN-tested technology on a test population... Us!.

    When did we get the asked to take part in a long term medical trial.

    I don't remember giving verbal or signing authorisation for some multi-national industry to test some product on me 24/7 anywhere in the UK. Especially concidering that that this technology trial may kill me.!!!!

    We have council Wi-Fi in Norwich, we also have over saturation 3G coverage as well as over saturation of home based Wi-Fi basestations.

    We also have the Post Office fleet of vehicles going about with GSM/3G-GPS fitted (running at maximum power), driving about from all day and night across the city/country.

    The background microwave radiation levels are over WHO limits, not that anyone cares if the population gets cancer or anything else for that matter.

    I mean it has to be safe, the all the politicians say it is so, least all those in the UK,

    unlike those in Germany, who are having fizzy-fits about the health implications that are now surfacing. At least they are looking out for thier population.

    even Lloyds of london are getting nervious, sounds like some serious shit will eventually hit the fan, and you know what, the politicians will wash thier hands of the whole matter, when it was them that forced this on us.

    can we sue(or take other action) those that made the decision against us.

    mines the crinkly tin-foil one lined with law books taped on the outside...

    illuminatus;p

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Err...

    @Ishkandar - It was proven in court the he wasn't smoking anything... ;)

    @Dangermouse - Does your Granny from Edinburgh or all of the other examples you site put thousands of pounds a year into the London economy? No? Are tey affected by the decisions that are made about transport, services etc.? not really. I am aware that I don't pay local tax in London, but the company I work for shure pays a whole shedload of tax. I don't really think that I should have a vote, but I am concerned that there is no incentive for the people running for mayor to consider the transient workers, who basically make London work, have no voice but contribute a shitload of cash to the London economy.

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