Forty-six years ago, Harold Wilson gave a speech that is remembered for what became perhaps the former Labour prime minister’s best-known phrase the “white heat” of technology revolution.
In reality, Wilson was talking more about casting aside restrictive working practices and old class divides than heralding the importance of high-tech innovation. But it was the first time that this country’s leader turned to technology as a potential vote winner.
Last week, Gordon Brown stepped further onto the same platform. “The digital future of the UK is a complete departure from what has gone on before,” he told delegates at the Digital Britain Summit.
For some months now, Brown has placed science and technology at the heart of economic recovery as he should, and so should be praised for. This year, we have seen the draft Digital Britain report published to a somewhat lukewarm reaction and in the past week hints of government cash for next-generation broadband and a “bank” to fund high-tech startups.
By the time you read this, chancellor Alistair Darling will have published the Budget, and some of these proposals may or may not have become clearer.
But whether in the Budget or not, it is time for the rhetoric and promises to stop and the action to start. Putting technology at the centre of the UK’s future is an easy and obvious thing to say; it is much harder to turn it into policy.
When the prime minister said last week: “We can use the downturn to build the necessary technological infrastructure we need for the future,” it is unclear whether “we” refers to the government, or to the country as a whole. Is this an exhortation to business and consumers to spend, spend, spend on technology, or is it a promise for funding and legislation to make this a truly digital Britain?
Wilson gave us white heat. It’s time for Brown to show us the colour of his money.
