thenotsomightyom

I remember about fifteen years ago standing under a phone mast in a misty field surrounded by sheep on high ground in a farmers field in Cornwall. There was still no reception.

The masts are essential for rural areas and I’m sure connectivity has improved but it seems that the rental contracts between the farmer and the Telecomms operators have not been honoured and the monies the farmer’s receive have been greatly reduced.

This is due to changes made to the Electronic Communicatons Code in 2017 which has exposed people renting their land to host a ‘Phone Mast’ to lower rents in order to make the infrastructure investment cheaper and in theory increase coverage, but in fact could do the opposite.

This is definitely a David versus Goliath scenario , with the Telecoms operators unwilling to negotiate and saying “see you in court”, which of course the farmer will in most cases be unable afford. It’s risking time and money to try and get fair treatment.

Again common sense should prevail, you cannot cut a rent that was agreed fifteen years ago, just because you want the infrastructure to be cheaper.

Also the farmer’s land is his and who he gives access to it is up to him. To have a decent infrastructure the masts need to be maintained and located where they can provide the best coverage.

Surely at the very least there should be an arbitration service to act as a go between between the landowner and the telecoms operator.

Thanks to Deborah Haynes of Sky News Online for the Headline.

Tell me when a politician ever had a ‘frank conversation’ with the public about anything, generally they are trying to talk up their performance or reassure everyone that everything is going to plan.

Sir Roy Walker was addressing 700 troops on a visit to Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire and he talked about Citizen sacrifice and that the general public had to support the soldiers by making sacrifices ( does he mean paying more tax?) or having curfews and not travelling anywhere. Doing a collection for the British Legion or knitting socks as people did in World War One and Two. Have no fear Sir Roy whatever you need us to do we will do.

Sir Roy says that the Citizen support is necessary and that the army can do what ” it only can do” by bringing the fight to the enemy. Strong words .

The reality is modern warfare has changed beyond recognition with the introduction and use of drones and the amount of spy software , satellites and intelligence makes bringing the fight to the enemy quite a different scenario.

Perhaps Sir Roy was just rousing the troops, it’s his role , however , Media outlets can use these words as rabble rousing and scaring people into believing that another War is imminent , when the reality is that there are a lot of people working for Peace and perhaps we need to support them too.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏