Labour Policy on Technology in the UK May Seem Vague, Lots of Greenwashing
About a decade ago I met Tom Watson in person (he was former leader of Labour, he was very obese and breathed heavily at the time). He said he had read Techrights and was familiar with what we were publishing. We spoke about surveillance. A lot has changed in Labour since then and it looks like they're back in power, not that I'm a huge fan (I also met and spoke to in length with Theresa May as a teenager). Looking beyond the "left"/"right" politics, both parties are pro-spying, pro-war, pro-corporations etc. One is more overzealous about privatisation - or grifting - than the other and one is responsible for Brexit, the other is not (or barely).
What does it all mean for Techrights?
To be honest, I didn't watch their platform or their tech policy closely.
Here is what Labour Digital - not an official site - says about itself:
At the bottom it says "Darren Jones MP, Chair of Labour Digital".
More official pages say [1, 2] "[s]upport for new data centres, long-term R&D funding and reformed, centralised regulators for new technologies are among the key tech policy commitments from the Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto."
The official site says: "Labour’s plan will make work pay. We’ll boost wages, make work more secure and support working people to thrive – delivering a genuine living wage, banning exploitative zero hour contracts, and ending fire and rehire."
That's still relatively vague on tech policy.
There's some greenwashing in the manifesto, but they speak of computation centres, which can never be green, so the devil is in the details.
Promises are cheap, especially during election seasons. Labour will need to actually deliver. █