Luckily, a British prime minister has recognised IT's importance to our future. I refer, of course, to Margaret Thatcher. IT Year 1982, one of her government's rare forays into creative industrial policy, introduced a generation of Britons to IT by putting microcomputers into schools and doctors' surgeries.
Of course in its original purpose, which was to nurture British computer makers, IT Year 1982 failed dismally. However, the initiative had unforeseen benefits. It created a legion of clever games programmers and (believe it or not) relativelycomputer-literate doctors.
A generation on, another national IT initiative is approaching its climax. UK Online, launched by Tony Blair in September 2000, aims not so much to boost the hardware industry - thanks partly to Lady Thatcher, there isn't one much of one - but to create what other EU countries call the information society.
Its central target is to ensure that everyone who wants it has access to an internet connection by 2005. In theory, this box could have been ticked by putting a terminal in every public library. To the credit of the UK Online team, this was never seen as enough: hence the 6,000 UK Online centres set up in colleges, council offices, youth clubs and clinics to offer computer time and basic tuition to all comers.
They are badly needed. Although about 45% of households now have the internet at home, the rate of increase is stalling. Official statistics published this week showed that only 3% more homes were connected than at this time last year. Worse, the digital divide is becoming set in stone. Only 10% of households in the lowest income group are online, compared with 82% in the highest. And only 15% of people over 65 have used the internet.
This month, UK Online began its last heave towards getting Britain connected. A "get started" campaign offering free internet starter sessions is running until the end of June. Andrew Pinder, the e-envoy, calls it a "focused push" to attack the stubborn groups who are afraid or too shy to give the internet a try. The publicity machine is in full swing: the campaign has featured on Coronation Street and computers are having a suspiciously high profile on The Archers.
Time will slowly close the old-young divide: the internet is the perfect Meldrew medium. But so long as household access requires a telephone line and a credit card, UK Online centres will be needed.
On present plans, many centres will not be around after 2005, even if they last that long. The centre chosen for the launch of Get Started, in Bethnal Green, east London, has already run out of money. According to the manager, Evelyn Murray Smith, it is existing hand-to-mouth since funding from the DFES ran out in March. It needs around £60,000 a year.
IT 1982 sputtered out after just a year: Margaret Thatcher was never that committed. UK Online's sponsor has already shown more consistency. But if UK Online is to achieve its real aims, it may have to become a permanent institution.
