Modernising with Purpose
A manifesto for a digital Britain

Author: William Davies
Contributors:
Price: £9.95
Publication Date: 14 July 2005

“Our digital future is too central to economic, political and social structures and processes to leave to the technical experts or the politicians. This book will help broaden and inform debate over the real world stakes in the digital choices facing Britain in today’s global network of networks.” Professor William Dutton, Director, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford


The spread of digital technologies throughout our society has created new opportunities, new threats and new responsibilities for policy-makers.

The task of modernising public services and the UK economy using new technology is a critical one, but must not crowd out constitutional and legal concerns about our safety and privacy. Equally, the diffusion of these new tools through civil society offers significant new ways of understanding and conducting democratic processes.

This report outlines a policy agenda structured around the three strands of ‘modernising’, ‘delineating’ and ‘recognising’, and argues that these priorities can provide new purpose to the way in which Britain modernises its public institutions and economy.