Hello, I wanted to respond to some of the understandable concerns raised on this thread as I'm the chair of trustees of UKCOD and a co-founder of mySociety and it's my job, along with the other trustees, to ensure that mySociety remains non-partisan. I take this responsibility very seriously.
The agenda that mySociety advances and the ideas that we promote (that enlightened and appropriate use of the Internet, IT and other communications technologies can deliver game changing benefits to individuals, societies and their governments) are not and never have been party political issues. Given the opportunity we have consistently bored the legs off people of all political persuasions and parties whether or not they wanted to listen for 6 years now. When Tom approached us to let us know that he had been asked to advise the opposition we were pleased to know that they wanted to listen, as we were also pleased when Tom had previously been asked to advise Labour ministers, Downing Street, Parliament and political parties of different persuasions in this country and others. Tom has never been party political, but has provided advice freely about what he knows to people who are interested whatever their politics. We saw this occasion as no different, and perhaps even leveling. Tom has not been asked to and will not be advising the Conservatives on strategy or policy tactics. He isn't a member of the Conservative party. He's a technical expert who's been called on to give expert advice, and that's the same advice as he's already given MPs of all parties. This is the advice that you'll hear whenever you hear Tom speak, or if you read his blog, come along to mySociety events or lurk on our mailing lists. Although Tom is doing this in his own time and not through mySociety, I and the other trustees support him as fully in delivering this message to the Conservatives as I would in him delivering this message to anyone. Meanwhile our organisation, and Tom in his day job, will continue to work with all who share our belief that technology can make our democracy and government work better. Bests, J. _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
