Tom Steinberg’s speech at the MySociety 5th birthday:
“Government in the UK once lead the world in it’s own information systems, breaking Enigma, documenting an empire’s worth of trade. And then it fired everyone who could do those things, or employed them only via horribly expensive consultancies. It is time to start bringing them back into the corridors of power.”
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I picked up on the same extract from Tom’s speech: see post at puffbox.com. I agreed 100% with the sentiment, but was a bit wary about the terms used. Tom clarified in the comments: ‘when I talk about consultancies, I’m talking about 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 digit outsourcing contracts.’ I’m relieved.
At the lower end of the spectrum, I’m entirely convinced - having seen both sides - that outsourcing smaller jobs to smaller operations is the right thing to do, and possibly the only thing to do. In my own case, since going consultancy, I’m turning over lots of small projects, and learning with each one; everyone benefits as a result.
Equally, I’m just as convinced that there are big things which only government itself can properly deliver. That leaves the question, what role for the ‘horribly expensive consultancies’?
There are still some pretty smart dudes down the road from me at GCHQ. And they must be quite choosy ‘cos they wouldn’t take me!
[...] note that senior figures in your own party have spoken in favour of freeing public data. Not least Tom Watson, who’s work as Cabinet Office Minister is encouraging collaboration on new ways to get public [...]
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