Plans for 50p-a-month broadband taxation slammed for foul treating aged and bad

Plans for a 50p a month telephone line tax to fund the 1billion cost of a high-speed broadband network across the UK have been slammed by MPs.

An all-party group of MPs argues the tax will disproportionately hit the elderly and poor - who may not get much benefit or use from the network.

The MPs were also highly critical of the fact that Government ministers have failed to make clear that consumers will have to pay VAT on the new tax.

Unfair: MPs say plans for a 50p "broadband tax" will disproportionately affect the elderly and less well off (posed by model)

As a result of imposing a tax upon a tax, the bill will rise from 50p a month or 6 a year to 7.05.

Any increase in the cost of living has a disproportionate effect on those who rely on the State Pension to make ends meet.

The basic state pension is going up by just 2.5 per cent from April, taking the figure for a single person up by just 2.40 a week to 97.65.

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The figure for a pensioner couple will rise 3.86 to 156.16 a week.

At the same time, the average income in the private sector has seen no increase at all in the past year, while many thousands of people have suffered pay freezes and even cuts.

The levy is expected to raise 1billion over the course of seven years, which represents a rate of between 150 million and 175 million per year.

It is due to come into effect in October and will be charged per line, so households with more than one line will pay the levy on each connection.

The Government claims the roll-out of a fibre optic cable broadband network will deliver a minimum of two megabits per second of download speed under a scheme it calls Next Generation Access(NGA).

Companies like BT and Virgin are already building fibre optic networks to service the major cities and towns.

The majority of the money raised from the tax would be spent on extending the network to rural locations.

However, MPs on the Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, are concerned the money raised will simply disappear into Treasury coffers.

While they pointed out that younger people and families will increasingly not have fixed landlines to their homes because they will use mobile phones and the internet for communications.

Consequently, they will escape the tax while the poor and elderly will pick up the tab.

The MPs conclude: "We believe that a 50 pence levy placed on fixed telecommunication lines is an ill-directed charge.

"It will place a disproportionate cost on a majority who will not, or are unable to, reap the benefits of that charge.

"The levy is a regressive tax under which a minority of users will receive enhancements to their services paid for by a majority who appear unlikely to access these services."

They added the cost of the NGA programme should be met out of general taxation, rather than through a new tax.

"We do not support the 50 pence levy as a means of raising revenue to assist in the roll-out of Next Generation Access," they said.

"The programme for delivering Next Generation Access is important, but if public funds are required, they should be raised in the same way as for any other national infrastructure programme.

"We reject the proposal for a 50 pence levy and recommend that Next Generation Access, to the extent that publicly funded support is necessary, be supported out of general taxation."

The Conservatives have made clear that they will scrap the levy if they win a General Election.

WINTER OLYMPICS 2010: Kristan Bromleys award hopes disband as Jon Montgomery wins bullion

Kristan Bromley"s hopes of adding a second medal to Britain"s skeleton haul ended in disappointment as Canada"s Jon Montgomery snatched gold on the final run of the men"s event.

Minutes after Amy Williams landed gold in the women"s skeleton, Bromley, 37, had seen his medal chances effectively disappear after he slipped down the rankings following the third men"s heat at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Bromley"s fourth and final run could not advance his cause any further and he finished in sixth place.

No medal: Great Britain"s Kristan Bromley crosses the line sixth place...

...but Canada"s Jon Montgomery celebrated gold

"It"s always emotional after a race, especially after a big one and those emotions are really high at the moment," a downcast Bromley said.

"I"m really disappointed that I couldn"t have made that podium but I couldn"t live with the starts of Tretyakov and Dukurs and the home runs of Jon, that"s just the way it was.

"I tried my best, they were all making mistakes out there and I"m really pleased with my last run. I went really high at curve 16 and maybe lost a 10th of a second there but I don"t think it would have changed the result."

Bromley said he felt no added pressure on him having finished fifth at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

"I probably felt less than the last one in the sense that going into Turin I was being hyped as the gold-medal favourite, certainly from a GB perspective.

"This one, Shelley (Rudman, his partner and women"s skeleton rider) especially was being put under a lot of pressure.

"But the field"s strong and it"s a really strong track. I was sixth at this one, fifth at the last one and we had three Canadians to contend with."

Cut out the center man: Streaming drive-in theatre approach to TV hits UK

Nic Fildes & , : {}

British movie fans will be means to tide drive-in theatre approach to their TV or Blu-ray player for the initial time after Lovefilm, the online DVD and video diversion let service, sealed a understanding with Sony to suggest the use opposite a range of the products.

Lovefilm, that has one million subscribers, expects that permitting the users to crop and watch new drive-in theatre in their vital bedrooms will yield an additional progress to the video rentals market.

Simon Calver, the arch senior manager of Lovefilm, said: The plan and prophesy has continually been to get to the TV. Its where majority drive-in theatre are watched. The streaming indication has valid really renouned in the United States with consumers continually utilizing games consoles to watch drive-in theatre by Netflix, the American homogeneous of Lovefilm, on their televisions. Some Lovefilm business already select to tide drive-in theatre to their computers rather than watchful for the DVD to arrive in the post.

Movie fans will need to own an internet-enabled Sony Bravia TV or Blu-ray player to take value of the streaming service. Samsung has additionally suggested that it plans to sell televisions able of ancillary the Lovefilm use this year and Lovefilm indicated that some-more deals are in the pipeline.

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Only a apportionment of the companys living room of 67,000 drive-in theatre will be rught away accessible to tide as Lovefilm negotiates with rights holders over new chartering deals. More than 2,000 films, together with Castaway and The Machinist, will be accessible immediately.

The move to have drive-in theatre now accessible on radio represents an additional blow to the high travel let outlets. Online let by post surpassed normal sell movie rentals last year for the initial time. Streaming use represents an additional blow for companies such as Blockbuster, that has 630 UK shops and employs 5,000 people.

Lovefilm, that was founded in 2003 and has one million customers, already offers a little computer users the event to tide movies. However the streaming service, that will cost 12.99 a month on an total package and requires a great broadband connection, did not meant the finish of the earthy DVD.

Mr Calver pronounced he expects that discs will still be used in ten years as a little business will still wish to sinecure DVDs and Blu-rays. In technology, it continually takes longer than you think, he said.

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Government offers grants to buy 80000 Tesla electric sports car

Ben Webster, Environment Editor & , : {}

Taxpayers will finance the squeeze of oppulance sports cars underneath a 230 million intrigue dictated to assistance the environment. The Tesla Roadster, that runs on electric energy but does 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds, will validate for a 5,000 accede to underneath the Governments electric-car scheme, that starts in Jan 2011. Even with the accede to it will cost 82,000. The usually alternative car to validate for the funding will be the Misubishi i-MiEV, that costs 25,000 but the grant. Nissan and Ford are additionally approaching to deliver subordinate electric models in 2011 or the year after.

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Jon Venables could be killed if his temperament is revealed, key decider warns UK headlines The Guardian

Jack Straw pronounced a consummate examination would be hold over the hearing organisation of Jon Venables. Photograph: Johnny Green/PA

The decider who postulated anonymity to the killers of the murdered two-year-old, James Bulger, warned last night that Jon Venables could be murdered if his new temperament is revealed.

Baroness Butler-Sloss shielded the need for secrecy, echoing the on all sides of probity secretary, Jack Straw, who was upheld by MPs from all parties for his warding off to crawl to announcement media final for the evident avowal of the reasons for Venables"s stop to prison.

James Bulger. Photograph: PA

The crossbench counterpart and former boss of the high court"s family division, who postulated Venables anonymity on his recover from prison, stressed "the huge significance of safeguarding his anonymity now, and if he is [again] released, given those who longed for to kill him in 2001 are expected to be out there now".

Butler-Sloss"s comments in the House of Lords came hours after Denise Fergus, the mom of James Bulger, voiced a little await for Straw"s position, observant that she was "prepared to wait for a bit longer" to find out the full sum to forestall jeopardising any destiny probity case.

But the probity secretary, vocalization at the Commons, did oath a "thorough review" of Venables"s hearing organisation given his recover in 2001, after Fergus demanded the sacking of "whoever"s been safeguarding and seeking after Venables in the 9 years of his release".

Venables and Robert Thompson, both elderly 10 when they murdered James Bulger after abducting him from a selling centre in Bootle in 1993, were expelled in 2001 after portion 7 years and eight months in internal management secure units. Both were given new identities stable by an anonymity sequence that is still in force.

Straw again attempted to defuse the media debate by explaining to MPs since he was not means to give any some-more sum of the reasons at the back of Venables" stop after giving serve care to the matter.

The probity cabinet member did however indicate that Venables" purported corruption – that has at large been reported as related to kid abuse images – was usually unclosed as a outcome of concerns that his new temperament was no longer secure.

"During the week commencement the twenty-two February, officials in my dialect schooled of the concede of Venables" new identity. Subsequently report came to light that Venables might have committed a vicious crack of his looseness conditions."

Straw pronounced Venables was removed to control on the same day and has given remained in jail whilst a recover house conference is pending. He pronounced full sum had not been supposing given both the military and the executive of open prosecutions had suggested that the "premature avowal of report could criticise the firmness of the rapist probity process, together with any intensity prosecution".

Straw added: "It is vicious that if charges do follow, it is probable to hold a satisfactory hearing – satisfactory for the counterclaim and satisfactory for the prosecution."

The ultimate turn of announcement conjecture over the reasons for Venables"s stop was sparked by the disaster of the government"s comparison law officers to secure an explain on Friday night opposite the Sun newspaper, that reported that his stop followed a vicious passionate offence. The profession general"s bureau reliable yesterday that it had been catastrophic in securing an injunction. The import was that the decider deserted the central explain that announcement could crack his anonymity. Legal reminders were released to the media at the week end advising them of the conditions of the strange anonymity order, but this did not forestall the Sunday Mirror stating sum of the new purported offence.

Fergus, in her initial promote interview, called for the hearing staff who had monitored her son"s killers to be sacked and demanded to know what offences had been committed.

She indicted the supervision of mishandling the recall. "The supervision only don"t know how to hoop this right afar . Because this is so big again, the supervision are only treating it similar to a football, kicking it to one another."

But she did accept that it might be vulnerable to rught afar divulge the details.

"I don"t wish to do anything to imperil this at all. If he has harm someone else or killed someone else I goal they get probity as well," she told ITV"s This Morning. "I was told that if any of them breached their conditions I would be sensitive true away. Now I hold [that was] not the case. I"m only ill of them shutting doors in my face.

"If these allegations that are reported in the writings are true, afterwards this has been going on in the 9 years of their recover ... whoever has been seeking after and safeguarding Venables, I"m job for them to be sacked."

In the Commons, Straw additionally perceived drawn out subsidy with Liberal Democrat MPs observant the order of law was some-more critical than the final of announcement media foe and Tory MPs notice opposite "lynch host justice" in prison.

No movement over "hidden evidence" claims in Stephen Lawrence attempted murder box UK headlines

Stephen Lawrence was murdered at a train stop in 1993. No one has been convicted of his killing. Photograph: PA

No serve movement will be taken opposite a late military military officer and a municipal staff workman arrested over claims that justification was dark during the Stephen Lawrence attempted attempted attempted murder inquiry, the military watchdog has announced.

A 62-year-old late deputy and 53-year-old part of of military staff were arrested in Dec on guess of perverting the march of probity by allegedly unwell to pass on inform relating to the killing.

The dual were arrested after a Metropolitan military examination in to the 1993 attempted attempted attempted murder exploration unclosed element it was feared had not been disclosed during the strange examination nor dual successive inquiries in to the case.

A mouthpiece for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said: "No serve movement will be taken opposite the dual men arrested following concerns identified by the inner Metropolitan military use (MPS) examination of the attempted attempted attempted murder of Stephen Lawrence."

The two, who have not been named, had been expelled from bail. Officials are scheming to tell a full inform divulgence the resources of the suspected non-disclosure of information.

"The IPCC examination is impending end and the commentary will be published in due course," pronounced the spokeswoman.

Mr Lawrence, 18, was murdered at a train stop in Eltham, south-east London, in Apr 1993. No-one has been convicted of the killing. Five men – Neil Acourt, his hermit Jamie, David Norris, Gary Dobson, and Luke Knight – were arrested but charges opposite Neil Acourt and Knight were forsaken since of deficient evidence. Dobson, Knight and Neil Acourt were clear after a in isolation charge paid for by the Lawrence family collapsed at the Old Bailey in 1996.

A small group of Scotland Yard detectives go on to examine the death.

Drive to have Hollywood conform the laws of scholarship Film The Guardian

The hulk torpedo bugs that threat the universe in Starship Troopers have one main weakness, according to prolongation highbrow Sidney Perkowitz: an insect scaled up to that distance would fall underneath the own weight. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Science novella movies should be authorised usually one vital misdemeanour of the laws of physics, according to a US highbrow who has won subsidy from a series of his peers after formulating a set of discipline for Hollywood.

The proposals are dictated to quell the movie industry"s misfortune abuses of scholarship by restrictive scriptwriters to plotlines that welcome the cessation of dishonesty but stop short of perfectionist it in each scene.

The discipline are by Sidney ­Perkowitz, a highbrow of prolongation at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and a part of of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, an advisory physique run by the US National Academy of Sciences.

Perkowitz pronounced he favourite Starship Troopers, but criticised the hulk insects, observant if you scaled up a genuine bug to that distance it would fall underneath the own weight. He hated The Core, in that a group of scientists transport to the centre of the Earth and erupt a chief device to begin the planet"s core spinning again.

The Science and Entertainment Exchange is corroborated by Dustin Hoffman, Harvard clergyman Steven Pinker and Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote the screenplays for The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Perkowitz said: "The goal is that it will get improved scholarship in to movie whilst still creation them interesting."

Most recently, the sell has suggested on the Watchmen movie and the TV series, Heroes.

"I am not annoyed if they have one big systematic fumble in a since film," Perkowitz added. "You can have things move faster than the speed of light if you want. But after that I would similar to things grown in a awake way."

"If you violate that you are in trouble. The chances are that the open will collect it up and that is what counts to Hollywood. The Core did not have income since people accepted the scholarship was so out to lunch," he added.

Ron Howard"s 2009 prolongation of Dan Brown"s Angels and Demons additionally fared feeble between scientists. In it, Tom Hanks"s character, Robert Langdon, has to strengthen the Vatican from being broken by an antimatter explosve that is cramped in a potion vial by a captivating margin constructed by a small battery.

"The volume of antimatter they had was some-more than we will have in a million years of utilizing a high-energy molecule collider," pronounced Perkowitz. "You can"t enclose it utilizing an iPod battery."