David Cameron wants to push all of Blighty online

Reconditioned computers that cost less than £100 a pop have gone on sale today as part of the government's strategy to get more British people online. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, meanwhile, said this morning that the government's interwebulator sweetheart Martha Lane Fox had been busily recruiting "digital champions …

[karl 15]

Just more bot servers then!

So we will have more twits n twats flocking to twitter and facebook then.

my Internet already slows down when Internet users who have no PC's turn on their set-top boxes and watch iplayer!.

look i help local people who are new to PC's, and I'm having to clean and reinstall the OS of their PC's every few months because of the crap they've installed

My wifes friends bring me PC's to "have a look at" all the time, and they are just full of viruses,

so it WILL get worse with more none PC savy users or ALL incomes online.

And as for comet staff helping... wtf i am sooo sick of removing all the crap they put on the PC's they sell to people.

people i know who don't use a PC, don't want one, and laugh at people who use them, saying that its a waste of a short life stuck on a PC.

my mum at the age of 83 was talked into having free sky TV installed even though she didn't want it. they told her... digital digital digital. after a week she took the box out and binned it, saying the box was loud (hdd clicking). she just wanted to be left alone and didn't want tec rammed in her face.

also .gov will have a mic n cam in every home.... "lol look at this Tracy, this small light comes on when you get undressed, and whats that high pitched whistling coming from the speakers"

http://tinyurl.com/3hzd9ka

(sorry for rambling.. not with it today, plus one finger typing)

[Anonymous Coward]

"digital champion volunteer force"

Sounds fruity as hell.

[GatesFanbois]

house heating

Well at least people won't need to use their heating in the winter if they have a P4 computer. Should also help the electricity vendors make a bit more cash with those beasts sucking up power.

Still maybe at some point the politicians will realised not everyone wants to be online. Even if you offer them free computers and internet some people will just not be interested.

[J.G.Harston]

Get all the country online?

Not all the country has a telephone yet. Some people still don't have leccy. My local council is still trying to force the last 12 night-soil customers to change over to water closets. 100% penetration is fundamentally impossible.

[Anonymous Coward]

letters and numbers

The problem isn't the computer, it's the connection to the internet that's the problem.

BT? Nein danke!

[Michael 28]

There's one demographic they haven't addressed

....but i wish they did !!

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/05/30/2241228/How-American-Homeless-Stay-Wired

Puts us to shame here in Blighty, really!

Comes with some benefits ..

http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/03/11/176226/Homeless-Man-Lives-On-Reward-Points

and some hazards

http://news.slashdot.org/story/08/04/18/1233227/RIAA-Sues-Homeless-Man

also...haven't seen any ipads on the remploy site yet...might be easier to plug in than those desktops.

[Graham Wilson]

Huh. Perhaps he ought to start by getting rid of Crown copyright and put all Govt. info on line .

Huh. Perhaps he ought to start by getting rid of Crown copyright and put all Govt. info on line.

1. Crown copyright is an outrageous concept if you believe in democracy--those who supposedly own the info can't access it without either cost or effort.

2. Start with Govt; departments and organizations such as the Imperial War Museum, quangos or whatever.

3. If all of the UK is going to be on-line then that's even more reason for the Government to so act.

[kiwimuso]

The anwer's obvious!!!

Make not being online illegal!!!

Force all these tech illiterate people to be online and to use pcs.

Seriously though, I find some of the comments on boards like this seriously patronising, especially to pensioners. Just because someone is drawing a pension does NOT make them suddenly the thickest person on earth. If that was the case, most large companies (and government) would have collapsed by now.

Just because you like frittering your life away illegally downloading music, making millions of friends on Facebook, watching movies online, and that you enjoy it, doesn't mean that everyone else enjoys it as well.

I have been a mainframe programmer for over 40 years, and I rather like my technology, but the crap that is now being forced on us by companies out make the next big buck is starting to make me feel like chucking the lot away and living a far less frustrating life without computer glitches, trojans, viruses, phones which won't sync with my contacts or if they do creates duplicate contacts on the phone AND Outlook and completely wastes my time trying to clear all this crap up.

And yes, I pay my bills online as it's convenient but the bottom line is, if I choose not to participate in being online, why the hell should I be forced to.

And as you probably gathered by the fact I've worked for over 40 years, yes, I'm a pensioner, and still working.

Cheers all.

[Anonymous Coward]

Students

This would be fantastic for poor (now even poorer thanks to increased fees) students starting out at university. It is a disadvantage not owning a PC at university, even if universities suggest it is not thanks to their public computer system. The fact is, having your own PC gives you much more freedom and choice as to when you do your work.