Labour 'Digital Activists' Publish £10BN E-Vision

This week's Labour Party Conference in Manchester has seen a radical set of proposals for making the UK the world's pre-eminent 'digital economy' within just five years of a potential return to power next May.

The so-called Labour Digital Group claims it is the result of grass-roots IT professionals, not lobbyists or professional politicians.

It used a fringe meeting at Manchester to launch its ambitious £10bn plan - 'Number One In Digital' - that it says will make the UK "a digital world-leader through investment and reform in infrastructure, investment, regulation, skills and public services."

To that end it lists no less than 82 suggestions for new policies, anchored by a number of main ones such as "national focus on connectivity" that would see 1Gps broadband to all homes and offices complemenetd by 10Gps connections for business hubs such as London's Tech City, as well as call for a special Royal Commission to "create a flexible, secure, publicly-owned data infrastructure and identity framework for the 21st century" for the country.

Other proposals include possible free basic Internet access for all citizens and extending the work of Government Digital Service to encompass the transformation of local public services.

The group claims the support of not just Labour Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Chi Onwurah but also the UK's so-say official incumbent Digital Champion, Martha Lane Fox.

'Push Power Out'

“The scale of national transformation driven by digital in the near future can hardly be overstated,” claims the 'Number One' study, while in its foreword MP Jon Cruddas claims  Labour wants to be the party for the UK’s digital future: “I believe our priority is to make the UK the number one country in the digital revolution. Government will be about giving people more control over their lives.

He also claims Labour back in power would "use the Internet to distribute control and to push power out to the people who know best how to use it."

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