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Giving a speech at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts in London, Cameron came out against large-scale projects such as the £12 billion NHS national programme for IT (NPfIT).

"Never again could there be projects like Labour's hubristic NHS supercomputer," he said.

He praised open-source

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development, and said the government should look to such methods to overcome difficulties with large-scale projects.

"The basic reason for these problems is Labour's addiction to the mainframe model - large, centralised systems for the management of information," he said.

He added: "From the NHS computer to the new Child Support Agency, they rely on 'closed' IT systems that reduce competitive pressures and lead to higher risks and higher costs."

Cameron said he would make it possible for smaller open source firms to win government contracts. "We will create a level playing field for open source software in IT procurement and open up the procurement system to small and innovative companies," he said.

The full text of his speech is available here.