Well done Lib Dems: now ask what your candidates think

Jim Killock, 14 March 2010

The Digital Economy Bill’s disconnection and web censorship proposals suffered a massive blow today as Liberal Democrats voted unanimously to oppose these draconian measures.

Not a single speaker made any comment against the text – and Liberal Democrats reiterated their opposition to the closed ACTA negotiations. They emphasised the huge social, educational and economic value of the net today.

As several speakers noted - it was people like you writing to them that made them realise how important this issue is to voters in this election.

Liberal Democrats MPs now need to insist on Parliament’s duty to debate this Bill, and fully scrutinize it.

As the BPI said in their note leaked yesterday, the greatest chance this Bill’s dangerous measures have is if MPs fail to exercise their duty, and do not examine the myriad problems in it.

Without that debate, MPs could end up voting to damage the digital economy and society.

This Bill is now an election issue. As the Liberal Democrats have found out – this will change how people vote. We are talking about an essential service, vital to people’s lives, being withdrawn and lives and businesses damaged by very dangerous legislation.

Take action

Please write to your local paper, and your candidates. Ask your MP to make this controversial Bill is debated – and ask if your candidates oppose censorship and disconnection.

@JasonJHunter

I was There!
Reply #2 on : Mon March 15, 2010, 12:10:07

Hi Jim,

I was at the LibDem conference this weekend in Birmingham and I made a point of attending the motion presented on this issue by Bridget Fox.

The Liberal Democrats recognise that this is an urgent issue for members of the public and I welcome the stand the LibDem MEP's are taking AGAINST website blocking and the secrecy of the International Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations.

Further, LibDem Conference unanimously approved the motion as a whole and opposes excessive regulatory attempts to monitor, control and limit internet access or internet publication, whether at local, national, European or global level.

For more information on this very important issue, please feel free to contact me.

Alix

Re: Well done Lib Dems: now ask what your candidates think
Reply #1 on : Mon March 15, 2010, 23:34:42

"Liberal Democrats MPs now need to insist on Parliament’s duty to debate this Bill, and fully scrutinize it."

I would caution people not to be surprised if this just isn't possible. Never say never, and I hope Bridget et al are exploring all the procedural possibilities, but basically govt has been passing terrible legislation for the last thirteen years, voted through on the nod by the spineless, witless Labour backbenches. If they could be stopped just by Lib Dems standing up and demanding more debate time (which to my certain knowledge they have done in the past on plenty of bills, because I used to read Hansard regularly as part of my job) the statute book would look a lot different to how it does.

Basically, I'm sorry to sound partisan, and I realise this whole thing arose from our lords being totally offside in the first place, but if people don't fucking vote for us then we'll carry on only having 50 or 60 MPs and we won't be able to vote this sort of stuff down. Simple as.

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