Technology policy in an election year: stop pretending it's technocratic

Just shy of 12 months out from the General Election, the right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange have made the first big statement about technology policy. Their Manifesto recommend a mixture of support for the tech sector (more training, more tax credits, more visas) and digital education for the rest of us (computer science GCSE). As Lib Dem MP for Cambridge, Julian Huppert, pointed out at the launch, there is not much in it for anyone to disagree with. There was a degree of blandness to it all. (Although kudos the the writers for publishing a list of specific and plausible recommendations.) 

Yesterday's event did however scream “it's election time!”. It's time for science and technology policy to go up a gear. For most of a Government's term, I pontificate about the ins and outs of good technology governance: where the evidence lies and where it doesn't. Suddenly these slow moving discussions are going to be pulled into the whirlwind of real politicking. This happened to me in 2010, but this time I am ready. 

[...] Instead of worrying about the politicisation of technology policy, this time round I am looking forward to using the election to bring out some of the unsaid differences in this area of political agreement. Perhaps it will even encourage me to confront the political biases behind my own technocratic status. Bring on the Anti-Bland Principle of technology policy.

by  Jessica Bland
read full article at The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/05/technology-policy-election-year-stop-technocratic?CMP=twt_gu