Nice.
Torrenting while playing petanque is real.
The European Parliament, Council and Commission have all decided that the in-El Reg's-view-inexplicable WiFi4EU project is a fine idea worthy of €120m to ensure “every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020." The agreement between the Parliament, …
@Charlie Clark
Backhaul out in the countryside in countries like France is a big problem.
My village (Pop 850) is just over 5km from a telephone exchange and linked to that exchange with copper of dubious age that is reasonable most of the time (1.5 M ADSL) but can be rather problematic when it rains.
Now, if they connected us to the fibre trunk that is 2km away and provided fibre cabinet it would be a very different story.
With austerity, I can't see that happening. Running costs aren't included and the subsidies won't last the life time of a parliament (assuming that the next one lasts five years like it is suppose to) which would mean diverting money from NHS tax cuts for ordinary, hard working multinationals.
All those nefarous clean air laws:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:l28026
and clean water laws:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/info/intro_en.htm
and product safety laws:
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumers_safety/product_safety_legislation/general_product_safety_directive/index_en.htm
Just think of all the freedom and control we'll have in just a few years.
The Leave campaign got the votes of about 37% of the electorate in the referendum but have 100% of the power. They are not even talking (sensibly) to the other 63% of the population and still hold on to power. Both main party leaders were elected to Parliament on 'remain' manifestos, and both represent constituencies that voted Remain. Neither can be trusted to do the most basic part of the job of an MP and represent their own constituents, yet they are both vying to ruin the country?
That's democracy?
"After brexit we can decide whether to spaff such money down our own drains or not. At the moment we have to pay a lot for membership of this dubious club."
We don't know that yet. We don't know how much we will continue to pay for any benefits we still want or need. What is certain is that we will have no influence over how that money is used.
Well given local authorities can apply directly, I can see the more hard-nosed and switched on applying.
If on the other hand it was up to the government then I suggest this would be another late/failed application - the 2015~2017 government had to be forced to apply for the flood relief monies that it was entitled to, although I'm not sure if they actually managed to get their application to the EU before the deadline...
In fact with some imagination, the location requirement "the main centres of public life by 2020" could be extended to include: hospital waiting rooms, job centre's ...
German TV news trumpeted this last night with the obligatory chart highlighting how little public wifi there is. As expected it skirted the security risks both to operators and users of public wifi if they're not done safely and securely. Most public wifis now are little more than honeypots and should not be used without a VPN. The convenience of not having to login is tempered by the risk of exposing your device to a potentially malicious network.