It’s been a little while since I last blogged, in part due to the work I’ve been doing on a paper for the Conservative Technology Forum. Here’s a draft of the introduction, and it’d be interesting to hear feedback on the direction I’ve taken.
Basically, the paper - ‘Control Alt Delete’ - is looking at the role of technology, Government IT and the internet at a time of substantial economic pressure and after a decade of some pretty piss-poor IT projects undertaken by Labour.
So, here’s the introduction - let me know what you think. It’s just a draft at this stage, and definitely is *not* Conservative Party Policy, but any feedback would be appreciated
Control Alt Delete - The Introduction
Control Shift looked outlined how an incoming Conservative Government would make the decentralisation of power and responsibility a central tenet of rebuilding Britain.
Control Alt Delete looks at the role technology can play in not just the decentralisation of power but also the renewal of public services in an age of unprecedented financial restraint.
The state of the public finances mean successive Governments will face financial pressures of a magnitude not seen for generations. Debate has focused around ‘efficiencies’ and ‘protecting front-line services’ but in reality such an approach is short-sighted and will not deliver the more fundamental step-change needed.
In debating incremental reductions in spending, an effort has been made to focus on efficiency, when the economic pressure goes far beyond savings. From Gershon to the OEP Report, savings have been estimated as being in the order of several billion pounds, over several years. A Conservative Government must go much further - and tackling the challenges of technology lie at the heart of the choices that will have to be made in the coming years.
An incoming Conservative must set the bar much higher, and this paper illustrates how the bar can be raised. There is undoubtedly the potential for a radical realignment of the resources devoted to administration and infrastructure over the next decade.
There is also the potential to use technological change to renew existing services - from the Post Office to libraries - and use them as an essential connection between the public and eGovernment.
Furthermore, this paper offers more than a mere illustration of the cost-savings to be made by harnessing. It offers a vision of Government which is more responsive to the needs of citizens, with the internet at the heart of the future of public services and economic growth. There is absolutely the potential for a fundamental restructuring of public services to become more citizen-focussed than ever before.
The parallel agenda is that this process will allow Government to devote more resources, in a more focused way, to those most in need. A Conservative Government can utilise technology to unleash the private, charitable and public sectors to significantly improve the communities and lives of the poorest parts of society.
This requires not just a technological investment, but a mindset change. The era of top-down, monolithic projects cannot continue. In its place, enabled not only by technology but by political leadership, will emerge a climate of innovation and competition, which will transform both the public and private sectors beyond recognition.
By 2020, it is very likely the first ‘digital native’ MPs - those that have been born after 1990 into a wired world - will be sitting in the House of Commons and their counterparts will play a leading role in global politics and business. We have just one decade to deliver a digital government that will thrive in generations to come, or risk not just becoming an irrelevant government but an economic back-water.