Broadband schemes evoke Blitz spirit

As the winter chill refuses to abate, it’s become all too common to overhear conversations bemoaning the weather. Have we all become soft? Whither the bloody-mindedness, stoicism and refusal to acknowledge adversity that characterised, say, Robert Falcon Scott’s expeditions to the Antarctic? You know, that same indomitable spirit that saw the East End through the Blitz, when housewives fed families with hearty meals despite having to contend with powdered eggs and less than a teaspoon of sugar every week.

Happily in some regions of the country it’s still alive and kicking – and not just in the form of formidable Women’s Institute members. This week, it emerged that there are around 40 local broadband projects across the country. Mostly situated in the kind of remote areas with weather that Scott would recognise from his expeditions, they’ve been born out of frustration with internet service providers’ inert attitude to ensuring that the nation is fully equipped with broadband. And their even less proactive approach to the fibre wire broadband roll-out.

My favourite - and the one that is perhaps most indicative that the wartime mend and make-do ethos is not dead - is in the hamlet of Alston. This is a place so unchanged by the passing of time that it was recently used to evoke Victorian England in the recent BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist. Here, the residents have actually braved the chill winds to get off their behinds and are quite literally digging for victory by laying the fibre optic wire themselves.

Also showing homemade ingenuity is a scheme in Bradley in Hampshire, where just 30 homes are served by the super-fast network. Perhaps the best thing about this one is that the village’s network revels under the name Bradnet - a name so quaint that it evokes nothing so much as the shonkiness of fetes and busybody residents’ associations.

Alas, it’s likely that once the fibre wire roll-out is complete these schemes will disappear. But for now at least, this kind of Robot Wars-style marriage of technology with old fashioned Britain should be celebrated. Blue Peter badges all round.