The iChancellor

Earlier today I caught up with George Osborne.  He'd just given another major speech on the impact of the internet on politics.  It was good stuff and is summarised in this Guardian piece.  Mr Osborne believes that the taxpayer could save £600m every year if Whitehall moved to open source software.  Our interview included questions on Labour's mismanagement of technology projects, nurses' pay and whether IT economies would afford room for tax cuts.  You'll need six-and-a-half minutes for the full video.

Comments

[Benet Northcote]

Tim,

I have to say I disagree with your criticism in this interview about how the policy groups are using interactivity on their web sites.

The Quality of Life site (www.qualityoflifechallenge.com) currently runs its own TV channel, a series of blogs on every subject we are reviewing, as well as personal blogs from John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith.

We have received hundreds of policy ideas and papers through our online submission pages.

We are also running a large-scale carbon challenge with many individuals reporting on how they are trying to reduce the size of their carbon footprint.

You might not agree with our emphasis on climate change, but you have to admit we are trying to be interactive.

best wishes
Benet

[ToMTom]

I thought West Yorkshire Police ran on Linux and that Open Office ran on the army's Bowman system, but i did hear the new RN Frigates ran on Microsoft Virus

[Editor]

My apologies, Benet.

[Dorian G]

Hi Tim

I wanted to broaden the discussion to 18 Doughty Street and the money the Party is spending on this project. I noticed this video on another website http://gweirdo.com/blog//index.php?blog=5&title=a_world_without_america_gweirdo_burka_ed&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
and to me it reminds me very strongly of a video done by Doughty Street already. Now my complaint is this video to me looks far more hard hiting then the Doughty original but on a website that looks like it was put together for tupence, and by people with no idea about politics either. My complaint is why is the Party spending such vasts sums of money on a project that in the long run could be done for so much less and even worse seemingly holding back from the hard hiting videos are opponents are using - the Black Wednesday video on this site is particularly offensive and we should be responding and beating these people. At the local level we could spend the £7million spent on Doughty Street so much better on local campaigns, on ensuring we have enough newsletters and leaflets to spread the word. Its bad enough that Gordon Brown takes vasts sums of my money and wastes it without my own Party doing the same!

[Richard Carey]

Dorian, there's a misunderstanding here. 18DoughtyStreet.com is run by Doughty Media Ltd, a private company founded by Stephan Shakespeare. It is not funded by the Conservative Party.

On the point that we can always do with more to spend on local campaigning, though, I would never say no!

[Scotty]

Richard, I think that Dorian G is a troll having ago at the 18 Doughty Street by implying it is CCHQ controlled and not very good.
The way that conservative minded bloggers have grasped the internet so much more successfully than other parties seems to cause a lot of angst among bloggers of other political persuasions.

[finances]

Has mr osbourne made available his views on brown budget and the wildly optimistic assumptions? Latest growth estimates being revised down, the risk of a slip off the cliff grows higher every day.

[Ted]

Tim
I think you should have a word with Iain and Mr Shakespeare - for £7m I'd have expected Wes Anderson to have directed the nightmare that is Livingstone attack ad. Perhaps we can have Ang Lee on Gordon's (strictly businesslike) love affair with Rupert Murdoch next week.

[Editor]

Thanks Ted :-)

[Sarahty]

David is great but George is not the best choice for Chancellor. He is cute, but his voice is like a pubescent teen and makes us look silly. Theresa May would be a better choice.

[Patsy Sergeant]

You MUST be joking Sarahty!

[Graham Checker]

Re: George Osbourne "but his voice is like a pubescent teen "

Abso-bloody-exactly.

He really REALLY does need to sort this out.

Everyone I meet (to a man) says the same thing about Osbourne. He sounds like a teenager whose voice hasn't broken yet.

Maggie got voice training, he needs the same - don't be ashamed of it, that's politics!

Do it, do it now.

[Editor]

Enough on Mr O's voice, thank you!

[davidwilcox]

My round-up of coverage here

[Dorian G]

In response to Scotty, I take offence being described as a troll. The simple point I was making - and I thank Richard for clearing up my misunderstanding of Doughty's funding - was that for the large sums of money that is spent on Doughty, and I don't think anyone can deny that it is alot of money, it seems odd to me other sites with obviously not as much money can put together videos that make the same political point, with gloves off, for I would guess less money