September 2007 Archives

The next general election "will be won or lost in 80 marginal constituencies where the number of knowledge economy jobs at risk from global competition is greater than the majority of the incumbent MP".

Over 400 delegates attended a fringe meeting addressed by the Secretaries of State for Trade and Industry (Patrick now Lord Jenkin) and Education and Science (Norman, now Lord Tebbit) on the critical importance of IT to the UK economy at the Conservative Party Conference in 1982. Over twenty IT companies had stands outside to reinforce that message

Then IT was seen as the "metatechnology" of the future. Today it really does underpin society. But the only IT-related fringe meetings at the conference this year appear to be those on the need to balance the war against terror and civil liberties within the ippr , programme, on the perils of electronic voting from the Openrights Group and on Avoiding Computer Aided Catastrophe (alias the need for a joined up approach to information assurance), organised by the Conservative Technology Forum . Few ICT suppliers are exhibiting at the conferences and most no longer have any public affairs or political relations staff to send.

LIttle wonder we do not have well informed political debate on matters IT

In the early 1980s the UK IT industry punched well above its weight politically. IT was seen as "the metatechnology of the new age" and major computer users, not just suppliers, were politically active on issues of concern. Today society is critically dependent on ICT but IT punches well below its weight politically. Why?