Friday, October 29, 1999 Published at 10:31 GMT 11:31 UK

Blair has first internet lesson

Tony Blair: Admits feeling "embarrassed" by computer illiteracy

Tony Blair has been attending his first lesson in using the internet and information technology in an effort to overcome his self-confessed computer illiteracy.

The prime minister joined a class of adult students for a two-hour session at a computer learning centre in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, in his Sedgefield constituency

He was learning how to send e-mail and use search engines after first using the net last month to send flowers to his wife Cherie.

Downing Street said it would be the first of a series of such lessons the prime minister would undertake.

During his visit Mr Blair is also giving details of the first of the 1,000 walk-in internet centres - funded by #650m of National Lottery money - designed to give everyone the opportunity to go online at libraries.

'New industrial revolution'

Mr Blair has continually stressed the need for people to acquire computer skills if the UK is not to be left behind in the "new industrial revolution".

At the same time he has also admitted he is embarrassed by his own failure to get to grips with developments in IT.

"We need as a country to overcome our fear of these new technologies if we are to catch up with the United States and parts of Scandinavia. I readily admit this applies to me," he wrote in a recent newspaper article.

Mr Blair's first IT lesson marked the culmination of a week in which the government has sought to impress on the public and business the importance of computer literacy.

On Monday, the prime minister took part in an online interview on The Sun's website.

He acknowledged no government had been quick enough to react to "this industrial revolution", but said his administration was starting to get its act together.

On Thursday the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, pledged to make the UK the leader of the online generation, unveiling plans to enable 100,000 less well-off families to rent computers for as little as #5 a month.

He also told a UK internet summit in London tax rules would be changed to allow employees who borrow computers from work for personal use to escape facing extra tax on a "benefit in kind".

But the Opposition says the government should do more to cut phone charges to make the internet more affordable.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 29, 1999

Answers

Wow. This one's a doozer. I'm more shocked by this than most posts on this esteemed forum. As I said on another thread, this says it all.

-- silver ion (ag3@interlog.com), October 29, 1999.

How is it that Blair, who is computer illiterate, can be out front in Y2K awareness efforts, and AL Gore, who invented the damn Internet, is nowhere to be found?!

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It's ALL going away in January.com), October 29, 1999.

You don't have to drive a car or know how to fix it or even understand how it works to know we depend heavily on internal combustion machines and to realize that a wreck on the interstate can screw up traffic for miles, even on access roads. Just takes some common sense. Not that Blair has a lot but he seems to have some people around him with sense.

-- The Great Pumpkin (sittin'@the.patch), October 29, 1999.