Covid is an indiscriminate infector yet discriminating deliverer of death. My heart goes out to all those affected by the virus and to all those souls taken before their time. The crisis has also exposed much which is sub-optimal in our social and economic fabric. Covid, like so much of what currently faces us, is […]
Category archives: Digital Technologies
Technology for Essential Services
Yesterday, I was delighted to take part in a short debate on the risks and opportunities involved in the deployment of large scale technology for our essential services. “Would my noble friend the Minister agree that there are huge advantages for citizen and state, local and national government, to be gained through the considered, ethical […]
21st Century Frictionless Trade – Lords debate UK EU Trade Agreement
“My Lords, there exists a need, there exists an opportunity, a pressing need, a potentially transformational opportunity. The need for a border fit for the 21st Century, the opportunity; a digitally enabled, free trade flowing, free trade growing border delivered by the best of our talent deploying the best of our technologies. Artificial Intelligence, Distributed […]
21st Century Frictionless Trade: The UK can lead but govt. must act.
Today [Tuesday 15th September] I am delighted to publish a new Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) report on “Reducing Friction in International Trade” (RFIT). Using a combination of distributed ledger technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) devices the RFIT project demonstrates a comprehensive supply chain data management system for Australia/UK wine imports in which all the […]
Protecting Democracy
I sat down with BBC Cyber-security reporter Joe Tidy to discuss the recommendations of our House of Lords report into Democracy and Digital Technologies – and to try and answer the question posed by the webinar which was about how the UK Parliament is combatting online attacks on elections. It was a good opportunity to […]
Fintech and covid: the good, the bad and the future
Covid-19 has been a hugely difficult experience for so many of us in so many ways, shattering for some, seriously challenging for many, and we are still in its midst. For all those who have been taken from us, for all those who have been hit so hard, we are duty bound to seek out […]
Wine prices set to soar – we can stop this.
This one is very clear, if we don’t stop a specific piece of (completely unnecessary and avoidable) red tape coming in on January 1st 2021, red wine and all its other delightful forms will suffer a serious price spike and the range available to us will significantly drop. In short, there’s a form, VI-1, which […]
End the digital divide in the countryside
Our farmers have been on the front line throughout the ongoing Covid crisis. They and every one of our essential services heroes deserve our thanks and are owed an enduring debt of gratitude which we should all covenant to. One service that we can do in return for all of those in our rural economy […]
Barack doesn’t want your Bitcoin
Today’s Twitter fallout is the latest reminder of the importance of cyber security, privacy and trust; all of the issues that social media platforms – and the way we use them – throw up. The attack, described as ‘effective but not sophisticated’, illustrates not just how vulnerable the platform is to hackers but, as significantly, […]