back to article UK.gov denies 'Google tax' plan

The government has denied reports it plans to impose taxes on Google and other search engines to help prop up the BBC. The Daily Mail claimed ministers were considering taking money from Google to protect the BBC's digital switchover surplus, some of which had been earmarked to help fund universal broadband. A spokeswoman for …

COMMENTS

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  1. Matt Eagles

    You couldn't make it up and yet they do.

    The Mail seem to have collected some rent-a-quotes from MPs and Google PR but fail to actually say where this idea comes from. The fevoured mind of one of their hacks seems most likely. I seem to remember them hammering the BBC pretty hard over single sourced stories (Gilligan et al) but they seem pretty happy to print no source stories themselves.

  2. Jonathan Schofield

    Will this tax really.....

    .... be used for the intended purpose? Just like Road Tax or National Insurance?

  3. Luther Blissett

    Lots of room at the trough

    The BBC is wot has to win it for troughing nu liebore next June at latest. This is to compensate them that little bit extra for their trouble. After all, it's really hard to persuade the cart to push the horse, with all its animal rights, for a change after centuries of colonial attitudes entrenched by dead white males.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Read the quotes carefully

    The spokesperson for the Department of Business said "no plans"

    The DM quoted minister said "considering".

    The two different things, but also mutually exclusive.

  5. Nic Brough
    Coat

    Whut?

    April first was last month?

    Mine's the one with a small Fusilli bush in the pocket...

  6. RW
    Go

    They're probably lying

    "They" being the UK's much loved NuLab gov.

    But, aha, what happens if Google just pulls out of the UK market altogether? What will Britain do without StreetView?

    Perhaps Google could redirect everyone in the UK to a site full of NuLab videos?

    Go fo it, guys!

  7. Bryan Lawrence
    Coat

    Switchover SURPLUS?

    So, there is money left after the 'switchover'. This was TV licence money, yet it is to be used for the internet??? Yet another reason not to pay the TV tax.

  8. Ian Ferguson
    Thumb Down

    Shooting themselves in the foot

    If I remember correctly, one of the reasons the Daily Mail has it in for the BBC (apart from the beeb being a bunch of hippy liberal scum, of course) is that the Mail's parent company own 20% of ITV.

    The same ITV that is desperately trying to convince the government that they should share the licence fee proceeds. (Because, of course, gems like Britain's Got Talent are just as worthy of public financing as Open University broadcasts)

  9. Stephen Jenner
    Pirate

    More European Commission Bollocks.

    This is the normal way for introducing new EU directives or regulations here.

    Step one, a newspaper or broadcast tells us that something dreadful is about to happen; the government denies any possibility that this could ever happen here.

    Step two, the government and opposition tell us that if it does become law, it will not change or alter our traditional "rights", but anyway our government are doing everything they can to ameliorate the impact of said new regulation/directive. Meanwhile they are busy drafting a white paper that gold plates and unnecessarily complicates the crap anyway.

    Step three, the real opposition (this opposition is not that group of wankers that sits opposite Mr. Bean in the commons) realises that "what could never happen here" is actually about to happen, and panics.

    Step four, the government points out that it is our own fault, we had plenty of time to debate and reject the new legislation, and it is too late now.

    NB; if you do not believe that this rumour emanates from the EU, see here:

    http://www.blackouteurope.eu/act/why-act.html

    Under this legislation (which was debated in the EP yesterday 6th May), splitting the internet into different chargeable "services" becomes a reality. So a google tax is definitely possible/probable sometime soon.

    Yesterday the EP delayed the process that they laughingly refer to as voting (ie seven hundred waving hands) at a rate of several hundred votes per voting session. Exactly why, I do not know, but this bollocks is coming to a computer near you and it is coming soon.

    Even if the European Parliament was capable of stopping the never ending stream of crap that emanates from the unelected/antidemocratic European Commission, which it isn't, the EC would find another way of doing whatever they wanted. For a very serious example of this, witness the Lisbon Putsch, which is the final take over and dissolution of the nations of Europe and the creation of a nationalist Europe. Despite votes by the French, Dutch and Irish to halt this "treaty" most of it has already been invoked.

  10. Badg3r
    Coat

    Well..

    If they have denied it then it's bound to be true.

  11. Mark C

    surplus?

    How can there be a surplus when they haven't finished yet? Any chance that the money could go to upgrading the Sudbury transmitter now rather than whenever the hell they're going to get round to it?

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