David Wylie

Scotland

IT pundit

"Are you thinking what we're thinking?"

The value of an MP is intrinsically bound to the life and work experience they bring to the Westminster table.

Mr. Blair's appointment of Alun Michael, reportedly a former youth and community worker, as the new minister responsible for ecommerce does little to persuade me of the longer term future of this important earner for the UK.

It clearly bodes ill, at least in the short term, for the prospect of the much needed appointment of an IT minister with suitable departmental resources and a cabinet seat.

Without such a minister, the work that needs to be done to ensure the positioning of this country as haven for software design and development, with the ability to attract the best of international R&D investment we are at risk of losing further position in one of the key futures for post industrial societies.