Labour party conference’s TalkTalk-Progress seminar, Securing our digital future: How can Britain best prepare for this advancing technological age?, addressed one of the sweeping changes facing Britain today: the digital revolution. Chaired by Theo Blackwell, the panel featured politicians Chi Onwurah MP, Ian Lucas MP, Catherine Stihler MEP and House of Lords science and technology committee member Sally Morgan. From industry, Paul Morris and Iain Wood from Vodafone and TalkTalk respectively joined the politicians.
The panellists spoke of the rapid changes facing Britain today where digitalisation is impacting every aspect of our lives on a daily basis. Looking across the continent, Catherine Stihler highlighted that only 40 per cent of the European Union’s population have moderate digital skills and over 20 per cent have no digital experience at all. Worryingly, the panellists cited recent studies by Deloitte that suggested up to 35 per cent of existing jobs in the United Kingdom were at high risk of replacement in the next 20 years.
While there was now a political consensus on the need to improve digital infrastructure, Onwurah and Lucas criticised the coalition for abandoning the Labour government’s pledge of universal broadband. Indeed, Paul Morris posed an interesting question to the group: is the connection we deliver today going to have enough capacity for the future? Going forward, Morgan suggested that broadband should increasingly be seen as a public utility given its importance to the economy and society. As Wood rightly argued, those who are offline are typically older and poorer and so this creates potential problems for social justice as services move online by default.
Panellists highlighted that the last Labour government was too late in building a modern industrial strategy for the UK in power and there was still much to do to improve the party’s offer for the future. Morgan reiterated the need for a fundamental overhaul of skills in education including digital literacy and computer coding. For Wood, Labour needs to make plans to invest in our people, not just our infrastructure, otherwise the latter is meaningless. For Onwurah, Labour must now champion technology as force for progressive change and make sure benefits fairly distributed.
Given the time constraints of the event, the panellists did not fully touch upon the radical measures needed in response to the threats towards 35 per cent of UK jobs. Merely improving broadband speeds and digital infrastructure will be necessary but not sufficient to best prepare Britain for the advancing digital age. As I have argued previously, Labour needs to become more explicitly political about the use of technology and its imperative to improve social welfare.
Traditional ways of thinking about politics, policy and social change are proving increasingly inadequate in the face of an ever faster moving and more complex world. Building on encouraging work in previous years, this year’s Labour party conference saw more meaningful engagement on the ‘Uber’ question that faces Britain today. Labour’s analogue policies need their own upgrade for the digital age.
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Oliver MacArthur works for the investment team at a charitable endowment. He tweets @olliemacarthur
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To see the Storify of this event, click here, and to listen again to the event, click here
