Beware the spin as politics meets IT

How naive politicians’ expectations for technology seem to be

In the last few General Elections, Computing has not been alone in hoping that the leading political parties give technology a pivotal role in their manifestos.

Next year ­- assuming Gordon Brown doesn’t surprise everyone with an autumn poll ­-we might finally get our wish.

Labour’s Digital Britain strategy is central to the party’s plans for economic recovery, job creation, and digital infrastructure, as minister Pat McFadden explains in the latest issue of Computing.

Meanwhile, the Tories seem to be positively all over technology. The party said last week it plans to use IT to make government more open, transparent and accessible to the public.

“For all politicians, the question now is, do they understand how technology is changing people’s expectations?” said shadow science and innovation minister Adam Afriyie.

And this week we heard again that the Conservatives want to look at how electronic patient records can be hosted online by the likes of Google and Microsoft, a concept first touted by David Cameron in April.

It is good to hear the benefits of IT being so widely debated, but still the concerns linger -­ and in particular, how naive politicians’ expectations for technology seem to be.

Tony Blair rightly saw that IT-enabled change was the key to transforming public services and his government set out down that road with enthusiasm. But it soon discovered that delivery was a rather more complex affair.

There are sure to be votes ­ and certainly attractive national newspaper headlines ­ to be gained by populist ideas such as giving electronic patient records to Google.
But as the NHS is finding, introducing electronic records is a massively complex task, and just by stamping the names Google or Microsoft all over them does not make them any cheaper, easier, or more likely to succeed.

We look forward to IT taking its rightful place as a policy battleground, but let’s hope the UK’s IT professionals are offered a chance to keep the promises grounded in reality.