Mark Thompson: Why do so many Tories reject their own manifesto? Because they had no say in writing it

Mark Thompson is a Lib Dem blogger who regularly posts here. Follow Mark on Twitter

There have been two significant political stories recently that have caught my eye with respect to Conservative internal democracy. I have found them particularly interesting given my background as a Lib Dem member and activist.

The first was the confirmation last month that Lords reform was being dropped for this parliament. The second was the reports this week that pressure is being exerted on David Cameron from his backbenches to rethink his opposition to a third runway at Heathrow.

Both of these issues have something in common. They are policies that were in the Conservative manifesto*.

It is surely quite strange that nearly 100 of the party's MPs were willing to vote against Lords reform. When you include ministers who were likely supporting the measures under sufferance it wouldn't at all surprise me if less than half of the Parliamentary Conservative Party in the Commons actually supported the bill. There appears to be a similar groundswell forming against the Heathrow policy.

Dr Mark Thompson: We need a new approach to IT procurement in government

Dr Mark Thompson is lecturer in Information Systems at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University. This week he delivered to George Osborne his report on delivering better value for money in government IT procurement.

Computer journalists calling me in the office, lobbyists bombarding me with emails – that’s the price you pay for getting involved with politics, as I did when the report I wrote for George Osborne on open source software was published earlier this week. I’ve got to say though – it was definitely a price worth paying.

George had asked me to write a report on open source software in the run-up to his speech on open source politics to the Royal Society of the Arts. He wanted to know how government IT procurement could be made more efficient – and how to go about creating a level playing for open source software. As someone who’s long been appalled by the waste and inefficiency of government IT procurement, I was more than happy to accept George’s invitation.

Before I go any further, I should probably just explain what open source software is – and why it matters. It’s software that’s typically developed by a community of developers, and whose source code is made openly available to licensed users, making it possible for them to tailor the software to their needs and make continuous iterative improvements. This not only makes for software that is often cheaper than traditional proprietary software, but it is often more secure and more effective too.

So – what did my report conclude?