There seems to be an election campaign on the go at the moment (I'm sure you've noticed). These days it's impossible to avoid the plethora of slippery politicians all over our TV screens, PC monitors and radio airwaves.
And this morning Labour unveiled their election manifesto (pdf) - read more about it at our Election 2005 blog.
Michael Cross, our redoubtable public sector IT expert, sifted through the ins and outs of the manifesto for any technology-related promises.
Here's what he came up with:
Over the next five years we will implement a new electronic borders system that will track visitors entering or leaving the UK. Across the world there is a drive to increase the security of identity documents and we cannot be left behind. From next year we are introducing biometric ' ePassports'. It makes sense to provide citizens with an equally secure identity card to protect them at home from identity theft and clamp down on illegal working and fraudulent use of public services.
We will introduce ID cards, including biometric data like fingerprints, backed up by a national register and rolling out initially on a voluntary basis as people renew their passports.
We will deliver our cross-government strategy for closing the digital divide and using ICT to further transform public services: - By 2006 every school supported to offer all pupils access to computers at home. - A Digital Challenge for a local authority to be a national and international pathfinder in universal digital service provision. - A new National Internet Safety Unit to make Britain the safest place in the world to access the internet.
We will modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age. We will use our presidency of the EU to look at how to ensure content creators can protect their innovations in a digital age. Piracy is a growing threat and we will work with industry to protect against it.
The last one's particularly interesting - will we see Larry Lessig at Downing Street, or the government coming out against DRM?
