Bob Seely MP

In defence of the Isle of Wight’s suitability for tracking and tracing

Isle of Wight Cliffs (photo: Getty)

A reply by the Isle of Wight’s MP to Freddy Gray’s: Is the Isle of Wight really the best place to launch a tracing app?

Dear Freddy,

You have written disparagingly about the Isle of Wight, its tech and a little bit about its identity. You said the internet was ‘rubbish’ and that we live in the 1980s.

I would like to challenge that.

The internet really does work here. I am aware there’s black hole of sorts in Seaview, where you sometimes stay. However, that is atypical of the Island. I have had Sky’s Adam Boulton, no less, congratulate me on the quality of my connection and I live six fields from the sea, behind a down, in the remote southwest of the Island known as ‘the Back of the Wight’. I regularly manage to do live broadcasts from my garden and my dining room.

What confuses some outsiders is that the Island is radical and conservative at the same time

The Island was one of the first places in rural Britain to have a broadband roll-out programme, thanks in part to having our own broadband firm. Soon, five out of six homes will have fibre-to-the-premises and many of us will have broadband on par with Singapore.

My Conservative Association chairman is incensed by your remarks. He writes:

As someone who normally spends 2-3 days every week on the mainland working, I can confirm that both the broadband and 4G on the Isle of Wight is far better than in most parts of the country that I visit.

The same chairman also tracks his bike rides across the Island with an app. The mapping app works flawlessly, and thanks to our roads PFI we have the smoothest in Britain, which helps our reputation as a cycling mecca.

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