Opinion: A Microsoft Exit strategy isn’t just a good idea, it’s vital. It must go a long way beyond a farewell to Redmond

In any case, Microsoft is so deeply entrenched in state digital infrastructure that it seems a practical impossibility to do anything about it. The company has a good 20 years’ lead on its competition in bending the ears and getting its feet under the desktops of enterprise and state decision makers. While the UK government has had spasms of promoting open source — most recently in 2017 — these have seen little enthusiasm and less adoption. As SODGR notes, UK state IT lacks co-ordination, leadership, funding, talent and executive influence. 55 percent of personnel budget goes on outside contractors, analysts and consultants rather than full-time staff…

This might seem hyperbole, but the facts are indisputable. The US is not trustworthy - Trump’s tariffs break existing World Trade Organization-governed treaties, a cornerstone of international regulation. Likewise, Trump supports the removal of regulatory or legal barriers to AI development, so what would happen if the AI lobby asked for access to national data from outside the US? SODGR is silent on this, because it seemed fantastical even six months ago. It doesn’t seem fantastical now.