A Digitally United Kingdom
Enough is enough. The UK government need to do one of two things; shut up pretending to understand the ideologies of the internet and modern communication or actually sit down and learn something about the online world after 1990.
In the last three months we’ve had four incidents…
- Hazel Blears’ outburst regarding nihilistic bloggers and their effect on politics
- Jacqui Smith’s decision to use 1984 as a blue print
- Andy Burnham’s idiotic idea that we can implement a ratings system on the internet
- The government announced plans to invest huge amounts of money into the digital industries
As you’ve probably noticed, there are three negative points and one positive. The issue really is that the negative and the positive points are mutually exclusive.
Let’s address each of the four incidents separately.
Blears
Blears gave a speech to the Hansard Society back in November about political disengagement and The Guardian printed an extract. Blears most inflammatory statement was that blogging “fuel(s) a culture of cynicism and despair” and that the majority of political bloggers have a “disdain for the political system and politicians”. Maybe when the government begins its investment into the digital industries it will take the time to understand why the politico-bloggers are so angry and why they command such huge audiences. The Guido Fawkes blog was visited five million times this year, so it’s obvious that it’s not only the bloggers that are finding disdain for the system, but also their huge readership. Web2.0 brings with it the empowerment of the people, and if they smell a rat, they are going to talk about it. Online and then offline. If the government is bothered about people talking/learning about it’s issues, then maybe they should sort the issue out at the root rather than trying to cut off the leaves.
Smith
This was probably one of Smith’s scariest ideas: monitor and record every text message, telephone call, email and page visit in a huge database (while she denied that these would be scoured and the content of each would be stored, the point is that they could be scoured and the information could be stored once the database was in place).
Full details of the plans will be revealed in early 2009, with Smith looking to cement public trust. I wonder if we’ll see something huge crop up in the news regarding an incident that could have been prevented had we had such a database? Cynical, me?
Many people will suggest that this ‘surveillance’ may already happen and we simply don’t know about it, but does that make it better? No.
Burnham
I wont bang on about this too much – I know that you all understand that the internet is about education and not censorship. This was the comment that I left on Chris Applegate’s excellent post;
An excellent post, and I’m struggling to add something without swerving into a political tirade. However, who the fuck does Burnham think he is? The lord of the Internet? The keeper of information for the (english-speaking) world? No, he is not.
This recent idiocy seems to be part of a current labour campaign to say stupid things about the Internet. Jacqui Smith wants to record our every thought and keystroke (no innuendo intended) and Hazel Blears is cowering behind her wireless afraid of the Nihilistic nature of blogging and the Internet. Burnham has simply penned his name next to a list of stupid people who don’t understand life past 1990.
Tom Watson has addressed the situation excellently; put it to the community and try and affect change.
As mentioned in my comment, one shining light is Tom Watson who has highlighted exactly how the government should be using the internet.
Digital
If the government is truly interested in promoting the UK as digitally progressive then they need to embrace the ideology. Implement the ideas from grassroots and they’ll grow, try and shine dying industries with a digital cloth and it wont work. We need to educate, implement and then evangelize to be seen as progressive… Not wait for other countries to begin and then try and shoehorn ourselves in at the end.
I’d really like to hear what Simon Collister, Stuart Bruce, Tom Watson and Colin Byrne have got to say (although they’re all hopeful requests, as I know that all four are swamped…)
What do you think about the UK and it’s digital evolution? Will the government utilise the power of the community or will it try and bend the rules?
Category: Community, Politics, Public Relations, Publicity, social media | Tags: Andy Burnham, blogging, Digital Britain, Hazel Blears, ideologies, Jacqui Smith, Jed Hallam, Political blogging, Politics, social media, UK, United Kingdom 6 comments »
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:40 am
Jed,
I enjoyed reading this, and sadly, so very true
Having just been to Stockholm and enjoyed my first taste of a 100mb up and down line I am drooling for decent connectivity.
Couple with living near Hull, where we have ZERO choice of ISP – we are stuck with Karoo as we don’t have BT, all of this is top of mind at present.
I’ve just launched http://www.hulldigital.co.uk and a regular,MeetUp where we are hopefully going to create a small, active web community.
The fact that all these politicians have so little experience and knowledge, yet have so much power is truly terrifying.
Best,
Jon
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Jon,
100mb?! Wow!! I’m lucky to get anything drip through – and I’m with BT!
I truly hope that this ‘digital vision’ will actually materialise and is not just a ploy to draw attention to how ‘visionary’ the UK is. Style and substance situation.
I know it has always been the way that the least people have the most power, but if UK politicians don’t begin to change their approach to a digital world, they might find themselves out in the cold.
Thanks for stopping by!
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Jed, thanks for bringing this issue to my attention. In its essence, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. The problem I keep thinking about is the bureaucrats and their unwillingness to explore the essence of the Internet ideology.
Chances are that the government will try to apply its old information models to the Internet, but the more e-literate (no pun intended) public won’t buy it.
Politicians’ mindsets need to change before the project goes live. That’s only a matter of motivation. I wish this initiative would succeed, though.
January 4th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
The community will do unto the government not the other way around in my view Jed. As you point out, they are so hopelessly out of touch that the idea they can lead on this is not tenable I think. Interestingly, it may take an election to bring them up to speed with the real world. Some are there already, but as a group or class politicains are not going to lead us anywhere fast on these issues….which is probably a good thing
January 4th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Honza,
As you rightly pointed out the worry is that the government will try and apply old school PR techniques to a new medium – it would be catastrophic (as many PR agencies that offer ‘bolt on social media services’ have found).
Hopefully they’ll make a few minor mistakes and then learn.
David,
I certainly hope that it is community lead and that they listen. I suppose that’s the key really, listen, learn then react as opposed to trying to lead.
I’m also a massive believer that it’ll take an election (with US-style media engagement) to speed up the ‘digital evolution’.
January 5th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Hey Jed. Thanks for the name check. I’ll try to articulate some more in-depth points over on my lbog in due course. In the meantime here are some immediate reactions…
Firstly, re. Blears. It is important to make a distinction between the Labour Party as Government and the Labour Party as political organisaiton. Currently, it appears that Labour doesn’t get the Internet in both roles.
When it comes to digital campaigning the Tories are way ahead. But I know some digitally smart people within that are actively attempting to change things (your boss is probably on of tham!). When it comes to Labour’s record in Government, however, see below.
As I understand it, Smith’s plans for ‘modernising’ data interception aren’t currently taking place. It is a rather new idea of tracking data packages, not the content. This is being portrayed as a ‘good thing’ – i.e. they can’t intercept what’s in the email or video file etc. Reality is it’s a terribly bad thing that is being driven by the security/intelligence agencies. You could argue that the government are in no position to argue back, but that would simply reinforce why it is important to understand technology! See more at [shameles plug] – http://www.simoncollister.com/simonsays/2008/12/happy-2009-unless-the-government-gets-in-the-way.html
Burnham – I won;t go there. The man is on crack.
Now Digital Britain could be interesting if the government understood the Interent. But again I suspect (am I too cynical??) that this is an exercise to appear like it knows what it’s doing. Frankly I don’t Lord Carter and his team to come up with a ground breaking vision when other government departments are working towards extending copyright and ‘censoring’ the Internet. With fundamental flaws in Government policy such as these, I expect carter to tinker at the edges). For more of my thioughts see – http://www.simoncollister.com/simonsays/2008/11/doc-searls-on-digital-capacity-building-in-the-new-admnistration-and-what-lord-carter-can-learn.html