There are many responses to this. One is to be amused, even charmed, by the sight of powerful men rendered bashful by technology a teenager would regard as beneath contempt. One is to cower in fear under the desk: Blair is in charge of one of the most advanced economies in the world. If he hasn't realised that IT is all about having a lot on your plate, what does he think it's there for?
Both Campbell and Blair felt comfortable at poking fun at themselves in public because they know it doesn't matter -- often the case when politicians tell the truth. For anyone outside the industry, IT is a bit like sewerage: expensive, necessary, mysterious and mildly risible. There is no shame, only demotic chumminess, in being a bit of a duffer about it all.
And that's the way they like it. For if we're all united in cosy bafflement, we can let the boffins get on with it. Don't worry. There's no danger of a suspicious, alert populace raising awkward questions about what exactly is going on with software patents, or wondering why the ID card proposal -- which will create the biggest government database ever on our personal lives -- has to be rushed through Parliament with the absolute minimum of scrutiny. As for the long tradition of inept IT within government – well, it's always the way, isn't it?
So it goes, with one bunch of highly paid consultants after another carefully explaining to our befuddled masters why the last bunch of highly paid consultants got it wrong. That someone at Cabinet level should have the sort of expertise expected of even a mid-ranking CIO is as unthinkable an idea as an innumerate Chancellor. No wonder this country's role in IT is as a satrap of American corporate will.
There is one saving grace. At least we'll be spared Tony's Executive Blog.
Talkback
Very, very soon they should have more time to take some courses!
Also, perhaps their ignorance explains why they so often propose IT as the solution to difficult social problems.
To every problem, they propose a new magical "database." They are then amazed that even the very few database projects actually completed somehow fail to cure the social ill.
The threat of ID cards has little to do with databases, personal info etc.
It comes from the enormous nature of the project and the inevitable cost and time overuns that will occur. Following the extended development time there will also be significant system failures, consultancy excuses and ministerial spin as occurs with the majority of government computer systems.