The sun sets behind the Victoria Tower, part of the Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of ... [+]
Amidst the ever stranger world of British politics, one constant weirdness remains relatively unchanged – the U.K. House of Lords.
This ancient institution is the British Parliament’s second Chamber, a bit like the U.S. Senate. For centuries, it was populated by landed aristocrats who passed on their titles, father to son. A small change happened in the 1950s, when commoners started to appear with lifetime sinecures. In the 1990s, many of the hereditary peers were, well, ‘got rid of’. It has ever so slowly modernized.
It is still, however, an institution whose members are appointed for life, and a very large institution at that, with more than 800 peers in total, about a third of whom are over the age of 70. Every so often, the prime minister appoints a few more, usually sparking an almighty row. This year’s row was caused by Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointing his brother.
One recent appointment caught my eye. Ex-Member of Parliament, Ed Vaizey, David Cameron’s former tech minister, who served for the full six years of Cameron’s administration between 2010-2016, the longest tenure of any minister in the post.
The Cameron years were a great success as far as the U.K. tech economy was concerned, and many people deserve credit for that, not least the actual entrepreneurs and investors who drove investments from a pittance in 2010 to over $13 billion by 2019, third globally behind the U.S. and China, and created a lot of great and valuable global tech companies. This was led by the FinTech sector which attracted more than $6 billion of the 2019 investment.
The U.K Government had a noticeably big role to play in shaping the vision for a technology led nation and was a real catalyst in promoting and accelerating the growth of tech. People like Rohan Silva, who set up Tech Nation, the tech quango that has done a huge amount to foster UK start-ups; Francis Maude, who with Mike Bracken pushed through ground-breaking changes in government digital services; Dan Korski, who really pushed the tech agenda from No. 10; and Chancellor George Osborne, who set up Innovate Finance to push the UK’s leadership role in fintech.
As the former CEO of Innovate Finance, I had the honour to serve this focused and professional tech savvy administration. On my watch, we firmly planted the flag for U.K. FinTech and dominated the global landscape - It was the halcyon days of U.K tech. Chris Woolard, the FCA Strategy and Competition Director was critical to this and a pioneer in digital innovation for regulators. William Russell, the now Lord Mayor of London was our brilliant benevolent sponsor of U.K. FinTech, supported by Sheriff and polymath Professor Michael Mainelli.
While it was cool to be introduced to Jack Ma by David Cameron at No. 10, and hob nob with George Osborne at Mansion House (this duo architected the competition mandate for Financial Services, a brilliant antidote to the banking crisis that accelerated the growth of FinTech), Daniel Korski was my touchline coach, and Ed Vaizey was the franchise manager. Regardless of event, dinner or conference, the pomp or ceremony, Ed always had time to hang out and talk to entrepreneurs and investors alike - the community greatly respected that.
Vaizey is not the first tech savvy peer to be appointed. A few years back, Martha Lane-Fox, the founder of lastminute.com, joined the Lords. She has used her position to campaign for a constitution for the internet, through her charity doteveryone. Film maker Beeban Kidron has used her place to push for iRights for children, leading directly to the new age appropriate design code for web sites being pushed by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Chris Holmes, a Cameron appointee, is a star in the digital gallery of the Lords. A five time Paralympic swimming gold medallist, he champions blockchain, digital assets, and citizens’ rights to data protection and privacy.
Vaizey’s appointment is worth noting as it adds real additional weight to this burgeoning tech savvy gang in the Lords. Since stepping down from his ministerial role he has been busy cementing his position in the U.K. tech world. He is working as an executive-in-residence at the global tech, media and telecoms boutique LionTree, who recently oversaw the merger of Virgin Media and O2. Vaizey’s role is to scout out and work with fast-growing U.K. tech companies, a role he relishes because of his passion for innovation.
He has become an adviser to some stand-out UK companies. Salary Finance, backed by UK venture capital firm Blenheim Chalcot, offers ethical loans to employees, and saves them huge amounts of money by giving them an opportunity to pay loans back directly out of salary. Perlego, the “Spotify for textbooks”, is upending the traditional world of expensive, printed textbooks, offering students an affordable monthly subscription to access 450,000 titles, and then give them superb functionality to annotate and update them. Digital Theatre anticipated the way COVID-19 would change the arts, offering access to hundreds of plays and supporting material to thousands of schools, colleges and universities across the globe.
Vaizey has kept his eye on the digital policy agenda. He has teamed up with Jim Steyer at Common Sense Media to launch the U.S. not-for-profit in the U.K. and Europe. Common Sense is known by millions of U.S. and British parents for its ratings of content for children. It has an aggressive policy agenda to hold the platforms accountable for the content they host, and was instrumental in the recent Stop Hate for Profit campaign.
Vaizey returns to Parliament with a full digital agenda to get stuck into. The U.K. government is promising to introduce a Bill to tackle online harms. For the first time platforms will have a regulator who will hold them accountable for the content that they host. With the European Commission's Digital Finance Strategy and the impending Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations coming and setting a global precedent, Vaizey knows I will be regularly knocking on his door on behalf of the global crypto and digital assets sector.
The advent of Brexit, in whatever form, will bring challenges to the U.K.’s pre-eminent position as Europe’s leading tech nation, and Vaizey will be closely watching, he tells me, to ensure that key issues such as tax treatment and access to skills are not lost in the melee. And of course, the U.K. is not immune to the emerging cold war between the U.S. and China. U.K. telecoms operators have already had to commit to removing Huawei equipment from their networks. As a former minister for broadband, Vaizey is keen to ensure that the UK benefits from first-class digital infrastructure.
Vaizey’s appointment is a great signal to the U.K. tech community, and a great addition to the Lords. Frankly, the government can use his help with its digital policy in this increasingly tech competitive and volatile world dominated by the U.S. and China to better expedite a U.K. tech savvy and enabled work force in future generations.
If you want to connect with Ed, start with his podcast, The Vaizey View. One thing is for sure, you are not going find many Lords doing podcasts, let alone on digital, culture and media. It is a breath of fresh air in the 600 year old upper Chamber, and fresh air that is needed to replenish the U.K's policy and plans for a secure and valuable digital future for all citizens.
