Next government must act on IT - or else

None of the political parties understand technology, and the next government must "up the ante" if the UK is to stand a chance against new economies such as China and India.

This is the warning of IT vendor body Intellect, which says the next parliamentary session will be a "critical juncture" in the UK’s transformation into a knowledge economy.

But it warns whichever party wins the election, the next government will need to "seriously up the ante" if the UK is to stand any chance of becoming a knowledge economy.

Intellect's director of public affairs Tom Wills-Sandford said: "There are two very different paths we can take. We can either accelerate towards a fully-inclusive, coherent knowledge economy or we can stagnate and leave the path clear for new entrants such as India and China to become leaders in the global economy."

"Technology impacts every aspect of our society and our economy. Our ability to exploit and absorb the potential of technology will determine whether we succeed or fail in a global knowledge economy," he added.

Intellect said the next government needs to set out a clear vision of the knowledge economy, by appointing a minister to focus on the issue. This minister should be responsible for improving skills and "information infrastructure", and creating a policy environment which will allow companies to innovate, the trade body said. Earlier this week a poll of silicon.com readers revealed that only one in 20 would be swayed by technology policies when deciding who to vote for. And more than a quarter of readers who took the poll said it was a non-issue as 'the parties know nothing of tech'.