Everybody online by 2012?

Hmm depends on what the value of being online is....

Does the govt subsidise and increase the burden on the welfare state to get everyone online?

Is being online going to become a human right? Maybe virtual rights?

Poverty and state assisitance to me means putting bread on the table, ensuring the kids are clothed and go to school, not paying for a sky dish or a broadband connection

I don't think anyones died yet of lack of internet.... or is this stage 1 of the matrix?

Agreed. People say they've not got any money but I think relatively everybody are far better off than people were say, 60-80 years ago. However, today people have sky, mobiles, broadband.. ...more and more things are classed as "essential" but are they really? Though maybe you're right, and it is stage 1 of the matrix!!

Having everybody online means that the government can get all their paperwork done online.

Got to do our Vat online, plus PAYE, so less people need in Government?

Good take on it, will maybe start to explain the 70,000 so called beaurocratic jobs getting axed!

I think it's unrealistic.

Some people choose not to be online and that's their right.

I think it is increasingly important to be online, and becoming much less of a luxury than it once was.

Even at the bottom of the food chain. You want to search for jobs? Complete online application forms? Research the company who are interviewing you? Then you'd better have access to the internet.

Especially now that libraries are charging for the use of their creaking old computers - if you want to check your emails once a day every weekday, as a potential employer will expect, then it's actually cheaper to have the internet available at home than it is to pay for a session a day at a library or internet cafe. And that's before we get into the benefits of being able to save documents on your home computer, not having to find childcare while you go online, not being restricted to half an hour at a time...

Add aspects like HMRC and DirectGov to the mix and I can see us getting to a stage where having access to the net is less of a "rights" issue and more of a "duty".

Unless they've been working on this a while I'll be shocked to see that implemented anywhere near 2012. A good use of having everyone online but whenever I see anything about the goverment and technology I know its going to be a right pain .

I have been doing the PAYE for my assistants online for almost two years now. It's a little confusing the first time - like it asks whether you want Cumbernauld or Shipley and you end up frantically scanning your letters trying to figure that out - but once you're in the swing of things it's really nice and simple.

I also prefer it from a filing point of view - I can print off my receipts on A4 paper and I have electronic copies for easy searching, which is a vast improvement on rummaging through the stubs in the yellow booklets.

That said, registering for self-employment online was a mistake - much quicker over the phone, not to mention more reassuring to be actually speaking to someone who knew the system and could clarify questions. And I'm kind of anxious about doing my first online tax return.

I see what your saying here Steve, but on a slightly higher level than life or death, we have been lucky enough to be part of the Home Access programme which helped us provide laptops and internet access to poor families with children between 7 and 14 who otherwise would have no acces to the internet.

The fact is that children in households that have rady access to computers and the internet at home, acheive a 2 point grade average at GCSE level than thouse who dont. a D instead of B which can have a big impact on the future prospect of young people and what type of adults they become.

For poor families it is also proved that those families that regularly use the internet to search for the things they need, from utilities to clothing, save around