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RSS feedsThe 'modernising agenda' is proving to be Tony Blair's 'back to basics'. It's a nice idea, but a seemingly endless pain to deliver.
Even in the quieter times, you get the feeling that public sector IT is just waiting for the next 'shock horror' headline.
Last year vnunet.com's sister title Computing revealed that £1bn of taxpayers' money had been wasted on failed or overrunning projects.
There's growing currency for the impression that government and technology just don't mix, and the argument has an element of truth in it.
The peculiar timetable of government business doesn't work well in managing long-term projects. And trying to apply IT solutions to the knee-jerk policies so beloved by Blair's focus-group obsessed administration is a recipe for disaster.
Yet the argument flies in the evidence of history: technology has always been at the heart of national policies, from the Maxim gun to speed cameras.
There is no doubt, however, that public sector IT gets a peculiarly bad press, and there seems little appetite for looking beyond facile clichés.
So Computing offers a lead, with analysis of the successes and failures of public sector IT.
Our report reveals the fault lines that can lead to disaster. We also show the big strides that have been taken to tackle the fundamental causes of government crises.
It's important to recognise that those causes are largely cultural and social, rather than technical.
Politics and technology, even at their most visionary, are both arts of the possible.
Yet our instant gratification society today frequently demands the impossible of politicians, and many in the IT industry are in the habit of promising what they may not be able to deliver.
But let's not have technology itself take the rap for the demands of society. Technology gave us the television. It can hardly be blamed for the fact that half the population is gawping at the jungle japes of a bunch of D-list celebrities.
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