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Corbyn’s Digital Manifesto needs more work

techUK Deputy CEO Antony Walker gave his take on the Labour Leader's policy proposals released yesterday morning.

Love it or loath it, digital is transforming the world. So it is absolutely right that politicians should be thinking about the wider social, economic and political implications of tech. However, Jeremy Corbyn’s Digital Democracy Manifesto, published yesterday, feels like a 20th century response to a 21st century world.

The manifesto hits on many of the right issues: future proofing our digital infrastructure; making knowledge accessible; enhancing media literacy; alternative visions for the gig economy; verifying online identity; improving digital skills; defining digital rights and expanding democratic participation.

However, some of the solutions set out in the manifesto feel decidedly retro, putting an expanded state at the heart of every problem.

Take future proofing our broadband networks. Whilst a Universal Service Network may sound attractive, the experience of Australia in trying to implement a similar initiative should not be overlooked. A highly politicised fibre grand plan – called the National Broadband Network - delivered little for Australian citizens but cost a lot. Whilst over the same time the UK has benefited from a steady succession of marginal gains, delivered by the market, which has increased availability and speed while keeping prices comparatively low.

Championing open source software may sound like a triumph for the little guy, but talk to any small UK tech firm and they will tell you that taking away their ability to monetise their intellectual property does nothing to help them grow. And while some may question whether the sharing economy is sharing enough of the wealth it is creating, does the state really need to be involved in the creation of new platform cooperatives?

Other parts of the manifesto sound remarkably ‘me too’. Is the Digital Citizen Passport really any different to the existing GOV.uk Verify initiative? How are the proposals to champion coding any different to existing policies? And wasn’t digital bill of rights originally championed by the Liberal Democrats?

But the real shortcoming of the manifesto is that it says very little about the economic and social significance of digital for the UK’s future. How can tech drive innovation, productivity growth, and new jobs and opportunities here in the UK? How can it help our public services deliver better outcomes at lower cost? How can it help to make UK businesses more efficient and competitive on a global scale? How can we keep our universities and businesses at the forefront of digital innovation and what role does tech play in underpinning a new industrial strategy? Finally how should we be preparing for a world of automation and artificial intelligence?

The UK has a huge opportunity to be world leading in tech and to shape the digital world around us. For anyone interested in how we can secure our digital future we’d recommend dusting off techUK's own manifesto Securing our Digital Future, published ahead of the last General Election. Which wasn’t as long ago as it sounds.

 

Channel website: http://www.techuk.org/

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