Decent broadband is a public right. Get on and kick BT, minister

As I set to compiling your email responses into our ‘broadband dossier’ to send to BT chairman Jan du Plessis, the government issued its own evaluation of the ‘economic impact and public value’ of the superfast broadband roll-out programme launched in 2010. Compiled by outside experts, this document from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) estimates that the additional economic activity and ‘wellbeing’ generated by spending public money to subsidise connections for remote and difficult locations: 5.3 million customers will eventually benefit at an estimated unit cost of £211, creating a total bill for the taxpayer of just over £1 billion.

Comparing the two reports, I’d say the richly anecdotal Spectator dossier is a more entertaining read than the heavily statistical government paper. But anecdotal also means partial, and I can’t claim that a cross-section of this column’s readers, most of them enraged by poor service from BT and its Openreach delivery arm, represents a complete picture.