You haven't seen that many publicly funded technology projects, I take it? I have as it happens. Ex-colleagues happen to be working on some, which is rather entertaining as some of those involved are particular left-leaning!

Government buying policy has moved to replace the massive SI consultancies that were holding the Government to ransom with nine-figure contracts to support (and deliver) legacy systems (think 00's era EJB nonsense). GDS is part of that move to more modern working practices, and I for one welcome it.

Governments need IT systems. I would prefer they were delivered with open source platforms and agile methodologies.

I'm interested to hear your ideas for an alternative.