Yesterday in Parliament, one of 2009′s most controversial pieces of legislation – the Postal Services Bill – received its second reading. With Lord Mandelson driving the Bill through the House of Lords and strong opinions held across both Houses of Parliament, it promises to be an interesting few months of parliamentary activity, to put it mildly.

As Lord Mandelson noted at the beginning of yesterday’s debate, “we live in a digital age”. The dramatic increase in the numbers of text messages and emails being sent have been, in part, responsible for a decline in the number of letters that are posted each day. From sending birthday wishes to receiving bills, e-substitutes – the switch from postal services to alternative digital media- play a fundamental role in the way we communicate with each other, with government and with businesses, large and small.

Debate about the Government’s proposals will continue to fill column inches and parliamentary time for the forseeable future. Hopefully, a part of this debate will focus on the importance of technology to the process of modernisation and the benefits that it can bring.

Technorati Tags: digital age, Lord Mandelson, postal services

Tags: digital age, Lord Mandelson, postal services

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:24 am and is filed under Private Sector. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.