"The Labour Government began funding Microsoft-compatible kit to the exclusion of all else (and regardless of what taxpayers felt). Shame on them for not only failing to back British, but being actively obstructive. "
This was I believe largely down to a visit by Bill Gates to 10 Downing St in around 1997 where he saw a man easily seduced by the rich and the famous had become Prime Minister and he ruthlessly stuck the knife in the competition, finishing the job with Acorn as it were. And that's why he's been so successful commercially.