The Tories' Duncan had less to say, but not by much. At an ecommerce seminar on the Tory conference fringe, he called for new considerations to be taken into account when drawing up commercial regulations. Existing procedures require a regulatory impact assessment to be taken to gauge the effect of a new law on the economy. The leaders Philosophical differences between the parties were most apparent in the leaders' speeches, however. 710m in new money from 2002 to 2004, leading to one computer for every five secondary school pupils, with a ratio of one to eight for primary schools by 2004.
Some intervention is a small price to pay for that.
We would prefer a government in tune with the industry, as long as it consults before it intervenes. The Tory's IR35 stance may make it popular with contractors, but perhaps those who feel really strongly about the issue might have already left the country by now. Otherwise, the Conservatives' main stance towards the IT sector seems to be that they would leave it pretty much alone. Culture secretary Chris Smith announces government spending of 5m on Culture Online, a web portal providing information on UK cultural resources such as museums and theatres. We see our talent going abroad and we share his belief that our country cannot afford it and we will govern for him.