The quango that likes to say yes
Fresh from Ofcom’s bizarre venture into futurology, now we have an attempt to “define the shape of things to come,” no less, by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). The TSB is a Swindon-based quango spun off from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills last year.
“Old” Labour governments were always rabbiting on about “the white heat of technology” and how, guided by the all-seeing state, it would transform society. That did not work out too well, but “New” Labour believes that if you give an old idea a new and expensive website, all will be well.
The TSB quangocrats have been churning out justifications for their existence this month, but the big one is the repetitious, hilariously solemn mission statement “Connect and Catalyse: a Strategy for Business Innovation” (PDF on sidebar here – the would-be funky vid’s a hoot as well).
“Our vision,” it says, is “for the UK to be a global leader in innovation and a magnet for innovative businesses, where technology is applied rapidly, effectively and sustainably to create wealth and enhance quality of life.”
As opposed to the world-trailing, repulsive, slow, ineffectual and environment-raping innovations devoted to impoverishing and degrading society that we would have without the TSB’s sad £3 billion.
The Channel only needs to know that there’s some more swill in the trough for commercially marginal initiatives, accessible to those who tick all the politically correct boxes.
