Sirs,
In her letter (5th July) Mrs Macsween appears not to understand what councillor Murray's letter (1st July) states. Never at any point did he suggest that the level of broadband coverage across Scotland (including Grimsay) was acceptable What he did point out was that broadband was a reserved matter for Westminster.
Nine years ago in December 2008, Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown proudly announced plans to "usher in a new digital age by investing in superfast broadband" in Scotland " (Guardian 3rd January 2009). A year later he promised "the nationwide rollout of our home access programme to get laptops and broadband at home for 270,000 families" in Scotland (Telegraph 11th January 2010). So what happened? Nothing!
Letter: Labour “failed” on broadband
7 July 2017
As the people of Grimsay will testify, the Labour Party is very good at coming up with promises and hopeless at carrying them out. It has been left to the Scottish Government to try and put right Labour's failure. If a Scottish Labour Prime Minister constantly failed the people of Scotland and Grimsay, a Labour MP would only keep to tradition and sell out the people of the Western Isles.
The problems with broadband are nothing new. Why did Mrs Macsween not raise this when we had a Labour Government? As for a hard working Labour MP, their last candidate does not know what is a council responsibility, what is devolved to Holyrood or what is reserved for Westminster. The last thing the Western Isles needs is a return of a Labour politician who is London Labour's representative in the Western Isles. As for broadband in the outback I'll leave Mrs Macsween to take the issue up with the government in Canberra, Westminster would only fail them.
Archie Harper
27 Shulishader
Isle of Lewis