Jezza finally gets with the EU’s digital program

JEREMY Corbyn this morning made a big announcement at Newspeak House in Shoreditch: his digital democracy manifesto. But hang on, doesn’t some of it sound rather familiar? Indeed, any Br us s e l s -wat c he r s wi l l have be e n ticking off the boxes.

First up was the Labour leader’s promise on high-speed broadband. “We will deliver high-speed broadband and mobile connectivity,” Corbyn’s team announced, “for every household, company and organisation in Britain from inner-city neighbourhoods to the remotest rural community.”

Great news. It was also great news when the EU Commission proposed it in 2010 in its Digital Agenda. “Fast broadband is digital oxygen, essential for Europe’s prosperit y and wellbeing,” Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda said at the time.

Then there is Corbyn’s idea for an Open Knowledge Library, a “free-touse online hub of learning resources for the National Education Service” his idea for an NHS of education. Was it perhaps inspired by Europeana, the c ol l a borat ive dat a base of a r t a nd educational resources, a conglomerate of museums and galleries?

And what about his “coding for all” proposal for publicly funded software and hardware to help teach programming? A shame they can’t use the resources of the EU’s All You Need Is (C<3de) public-learning program, which launched in March 2015.

It is always smart to adopt and adapt the intelligent ideas of others. But perhaps, if Corbyn considers the EU’s plans so impressive, he should have put a little more effort into... Anyway, that moment has passed.