Today has made me fundamentally rethink tech in government. I worked as a tech consultant to a could of govt depts in the noughties for a few years but found it impossible to break the stranglehold of "big consultancies" winning the bulk of the contracts.

There was a change when contracts were opened up to smaller companies but even then, it fundamentally means you have to fight to prove you're better.

The only way to do that effectively is to prove it and the way to do that is to bid lower in a race to the bottom.

Which basically makes government tech projects for the big companies who make it a strategy play.

Big contracts, large teams, scale, volume...

And then they hire against "market rates" which means that they don't always rate experience.

It means if you have the right experience (in a govt project, or better yet, you worked for GDS) then you fit really well.

If you don't, then you have to have an introduction to get the right roles. Which means jobs for the right people (again).

I think GDS did a great job bringing in some much needed guidelines for how to do gov tech.

But that appears to have not filtered through across government.

There are some amazing people doing amazing things, but it appears to be in pockets.

This covid crisis has exacerbated that.

By bypassing all the knowledge gained and simply hiring the big consultants with big promises (serco, Dido et al) the govt has tried to throw money at trusted advisors and partners.

What it hasn't done is put out a call for experts.

And there's a problem here.

It's very much a partisan government.

There are many people who would step up to help their country in a crisis like the one we are in right now.

But that happens *less* when it seems that the rules do not apply to some (Cummings).

There are many amazing tech people in the UK that could have built that "Excel" system far better, in a more robust way.

But they were never asked.

And nobody was asked to audit or check either.

And many would have said no because of the politics too.

The government is losing a lot of goodwill here both of the people and of the communities it needs to deliver the solutions.

At some point @MattHancock and @BorisJohnson and others need to learn that there are many that don't mind an honest mistake but do mind incompetence.

There is an entire senior tech community sitting there willing to help, advise, support and provide guidance on some of the issues.

This kind of thing is easily spotted in tech due diligence - something I've done before on multi million pound companies for example.

The government is losing the support of many through basic incompetence and by simply listening only to Tories instead of treating this like a crisis that needs everybody to pull together.

We will if you treat us like adults.

Grow up before you kill more people.