Thread by @Tam__Jardine

Here's what Ofcom, the UK communications regulator said about the improvement of broadband coverage in Scotland since the Scottish Government took on delivery of this devolved area:
(short thread- bear with me) /1

Now – this is all great news if you live in Scotland and have access to superfast broadband but meaningless if you still do not.

Remember- Scotland is big and sparsely populated. And has loads of islands & mountains. It is clearly the hardest country in the UK to hook up. /2

So the Scottish Government last year announced the R100 programme to reach everyone. They are funding this RESERVED area to the tune of £600million. Great news you would think? /3

Well- not according to the tories. Apparently Ofcom was wrong & the Scottish Government have been doing a really bad job. Let's face it- they criticised giving new mothers a lovely box filled with nappies, baby clothes and the like so it's hardly a surprise they were critical /4

Wait- what? Roll out delivery through councils instead? This baffling change was seized on by the cretinous @ScotTories who saw the chance to attack the Scottish Government and play at being in charge. You may know this- I've tweeted about it a bit: /5

1 year on from the triumphant announcement that @Scotgov is to be bypassed & delivery of full fibre (to the premises) will take place through councils- where are we? £190m was allocated for the whole UK, £20m spent on pilot projects & in March £95m was allocated to 13 projects /6

Here is the original list of successful projects as released to me in an FOI yesterday. Good news for the Highlands too- £4.7million to cover the largest local authority in the UK, or to be more precise, public sector premises in Thurso, Fort William, Wick and Inverness. /7

Great news for Bristol & Dorset as well, eh? Sadly not... the tories fucked up and sent me a list before it was whittled down (in part because they forget about their own rule that the provinces should have at least 1 successful bid). Cardiff & Blackpool take their place. /8

As staggering as this is- the FOI can be found here:
whatdotheyknow.com/request/applic… It also shows unsuccessful bids and therein lies a tale.
The final list of "bids" can be found here:
gov.uk/government/new… /9

I'll draw attention to one paragraph of the government's announcement. They announce what the bids were (not the amount awarded) although we know now that these are actually revised amounts as the successful bids were actually all higher. They wouldn't lie to us, would they? /10

So what does this all mean for Scotland? Well- despite being the most sparsely populated country with the most challenging environment to roll out broadband, Scotland received the least money overall. The least per head. And about a tenth of England based on our landmass. /11

Wales bid for 1 project and got funding for 1 project.
Northern Ireland bid for 2 projects and got funding for 2 projects.
Scotland bid for 5 yet only had 1 successful bid. Stirling (2 bids), Aberdeen and Shetland were unsuccessful. /12

So- 4.7% of the pot despite making up 8.2% of the UK population. If we'd received a per capita share (a ridiculous way to split this due to our landmass) we'd have got £7.8m.
Base it on landmass (which seems a better way of splitting the pot) we'd have got £30m. No great then /13

So what's left of the @ScotTories fist-pumping at rolling this out through the councils? What about the concept and delivery? Well, Ofcom think SG and Highlands and Islands Enterprise was doing a good job, but apart from that- councils have zero experience of delivery. /14

This is evident by their reluctance to bid. Why did only 5 out of 32 bid? Lack of experience and expertise. Clearly this demonstrates a complete failure of the UK Government. They heralded this as a new dawn yet the take up has been awful and 4 of the 5 bids have failed. /15

For purely party political reasons @MattHancock decided to change the funding and delivery of full fibre and it has failed.
The @ScotTories cheered him on and their own constituents have been shafted.
How's this working out for Stirling @stpehenkerrMP ? 2 failed bids, eh? /16

@AndrewBowieMP- you were banging the drum for rolling out broadband direct through local authorities. Now that the bid for Aberdeenshire has failed and your electorate has been shafted, your country shafted- do you not owe your constituents an apology? Here's the failed bid. /17

@RossThomson4PM - you were fed up with the "snail's pace" roll out of broadband & delighted UK Government was stepping in to roll out through our councils. Now all that's exposed as pish & Aberdeen's been shafted, do you not owe your constituents an apology for misleading them?

Finally- here is a more direct link to the FOI that kicked this all off:
whatdotheyknow.com/request/521263…

Should of course read- "RESERVED AREA". I'm such a fucking arse sometimes.

In case you didn't spot the howler in the first tweet on this long thread- telecommunications is reserved. Internet is reserved. Broadband is reserved.
Goodnight twitter