The Tory party says that it will install "nationwide super-fast broadband" funded out of the BBC licence fee, which will deliver speeds of 100Mbps to the "majority" of homes by 2017.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne seems to have learnt a thing or two from Scottish PM Gordon Brown and won't be using income tax payers money for the project. Using the BBC licence fee that everyone has to pay anyway means that he can hide the increase in tax somewhere else.

He said cabling in rural areas could be paid for by private investors, with the licence fee making up any shortfalls. Quite who would invest in bringing super broadband to poor Labour voters in the depths of rural Wales he did not say. So far private investors have been noticeable by their absence in such projects.

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