The General Election; A Tech Precipice

The party manifestos are, for the tech industry, a lesson in prominence and reliability. When this contributor read about the notion of a ‘Digital Ambassador’ as an abridgement for start-ups battling it out in the markets, she scoffed and declared it the weakest attempt at allaying the woes of the industry. Unfortunately, whilst the Labour manifesto falls short of any tangible step forward, as do the rest of the parties.
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The UK’s tech industry is standing at a dangerous precipice in time; the instability afforded by the Brexit negotiations, and the myriad of legislative complexity involved, is now more perilous with the addition of a general election. Whilst the British people get to decide who leads the them through the negotiations, the tech industry must manoeuvre around the result, in the hope that there are protections on immigration, the Digital Single Market, and financial passporting for fintech firms.

With such difficult strategic implications imminent for the industry, the manifestos pale in the required dedication needed to allay fears. Instead, they offer some broad suggestions based on little market insight. The nearest to a legislative agenda is the Conservative Party’s Digital Charter, which, in an Orwellian undertone, calls for broader regulation and management of the Internet. Considering this is the most comprehensive any of the parties get to tangible legislation, it is a far cry from what the tech industry needs to hear.

On the other hand, there is a huge disparity amongst all parties, and their agenda for the tech industry. Whilst rolling out broadband across the UK is a given, the Green Party for example, throws a curveball in the shape of reducing copyright laws to 14 years, and abolishing patents for software. The ‘sharing is caring’ ethos is, for individual developers, one worth admiring, but the logistics and implications of such a suggestion need to be further thought through. Especially if the best interests are retaining London and the UK as a contender in tech industry.

The Liberal Democrats fall short of offering comprehensive plans as well. Whilst mentioning the admirable work that Tech City UK and Tech North do as vital is important (no other party mentioned them), a clear legislative plan is needed to provide stability for start-ups. The sentiments embedded in the proposal to deepen the participation of the British Business Bank are exactly on tone, but, as with all the manifestos, detail (or rather, reality) is missing.

A party manifesto is the legislative agenda they will pursue for the next Government, and it just so happens that the next Government will lead negotiations to leave the EU. On that note, whilst some would argue broader commitments leave more room for political sway, it also gives way to huge over-promising and under-delivering. If a Government wishes to succeed in the Brexit negotiations, they can start by providing more comprehensive legislative agendas, with clear outline of logistics and costing to keep the conversation at a policy level. At the centre of the election battles, for the tech industry there remains the hope that the manifestos have merely under-promised and the party (or parties) in power have yet to over-deliver.