Tories want open source Whitehall

[getaboat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6430069.stm

Is this good news for the open source movement?

Not good news for me - I'm getting closer and closer to thinking of voting Tory after once having issued those immortal words "over my dead body......."

(apologies for local UK interest)

[Tomosaur]

Yes it's good news - I hate the tories, but governments should be transparent and information should be freely available to the population wherever applicable. Besides which, I don't want any of my taxes going into the pockets of corporations - which is currently the case. It's absolutely disgusting that publically funded bodies can spend our money on proprietary stuff - particularly when an ever increasing portion of the public choose not to buy into closed source technology.

[Cyfr]

I was just about to post this, I think its a great idea. I hope the tories get in in 2010.. but I won't state my reasons for that here as it'll end up getting political when this thread is about opensource :D

[ajifans]

Regardless of whether you support the tories; a major political parties making such statements is a good thing, as it raises awareness within government departments and local councils.

I'm hoping for a cross-party concensus :)

[jclmusic]

i must admit i'm wary of the tories. i like david cameron, but that party is full of a lot of hard right wingers and old dinosaurs with old fashioned out of date pointless prejudices.

sorry if i got too political lol.

[amar]

I'm hoping for a cross-party concensus :)

Completely agree, hopefully others will follow.

[G Morgan]

This could well be one of those policies that everyone just steals, I hope so. I'm voting Tory next election in all likelihood but would like to see OSS come in no matter who wins.

[johneboy]

The point of a decent opposition is to influence the policies of the sitting government. The sitting government may well steal the policy, but in the end, hopefully we their employer win.

I may not agree with a lot of Conservative party policies but at least they are provoking a debate on this issue, unfortunately for most of the electorate it will be of little interest.

[getaboat]

and here is an example of the reality

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6428327.stm

(go to the site being talked about - bottom right on the page - not sure what CVS is though)

[happy-and-lost]

Well, until the last racist (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6431005.stm) has been purged from that party, they can stay out of power.

[Cyfr]

He wasn't being racist but rather stating his experience of the army.. People have jumped for the racism card too soon and Camerons scared of messing his years work up, so hes removed him from the front bench, which is kinda crappy.