Tag Archives: internet

Links In Darkness: Wednesday 20th July – Tuesday 26th July

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These are the selection of posts I found interesting between Wednesday and Tuesday:

Digital Economy Bill passed by House of Commons

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Nice breakdown of the voting in the Digital Economy Bill from Alix Mortimer :-

Of the 189 Aye votes, I make it 185 Labour and 4 Conservatives. Plus the two tellers were Labour.

Of the 47 Noe votes, I make it 23 Labour rebels, 16 Lib Dems, 5 Conservatives and 3 others (DUP, PC, Ind). Plus the two tellers were Lib Dem

Alix points out that the Tories were largely absent with only 9 voting.  The Labour MPs (and what appears to be normal for them) voted like sheep with the very notable exceptions of  the likes of Tom Watson and Falkirk’s Eric Joyce.

The flaws in the Bill could probably have been fixed had it gone through the usual process and not the wash up.  One cannot help think that the government knew exactly what they were doing with the timing of the Bill and wanted the bill to be this flawed.  Lord Mandelson wasn’t likened to Darth Vader in the Commons for nothing.

Of particular interest to me was that Michael Connarty voted in favour of the bill and is therefore one of the party sheep.  I suspect he knows very little about the internet and should have deferred to experts like Tom Watson or someone like Eric Joyce who took the time to learn about the problems in the bill after getting many emails, tweets and letters about it.  My MP simply ignored me.  He was around for the second reading of the bill, but his main contribution to the debate was the bring up spurious points that looked like delaying tactics to me (trying to pick a point of history about enclosures against Tom Watson?  fine if the Bill had the time it deserved but not if there is only an hour).

The other point was that only 18 LibDems were there to vote against the Bill (16 noes and 2 tellers ?).  Not that it would have made a difference but where were the rest?  I’m assuming that this is another consequence of the timing of the Bill, but it would be nice to have it confirmed.

The Liberal Democrat party and the Digital Economy Bill

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One of the most important issues to me in this coming election is the attitude of candidates and parties to the Digital Economy Bill proposed by Peter Mandelson which

imposes obligations on internet service providers to reduce online copyright infringement, and allows the Secretary of State to amend copyright legislation to the same end

Quite the illiberal bill as described by Cory Doctorow, who concluded it “consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry” You could say it was almost typical of New Labour’s Nanny State legislation, but it was almost breathtaking in the way it could create the power to add any penalty or change it liked without it having to go through parliament.

On the internet, it was clear that most Liberal Democrat members and supporters were against the bill so it came as a big surprise when the Bill went before the Lords and Liberal Democrat peers appeared to make matters worse

This caused the Liberal Democrat Party members go into action to sort matters out, Julian Huppert and Bridget Fox created an emergency motion at the party conference that declared

Conference therefore opposes excessive regulatory attempts to monitor, control and limit internet access or internet publication, whether at local, national, European or global level.

The main worry since then is that the Bill would be passed in the “wash up”[1] and this morning there was growing concern on Twitter (@alixmortimer and @hashbangperl) that the Lib Dem front benchers had gone quiet on it and seemed to be supporting the Bill.  The concern was that despite the party members actions, that the had achieved nothing.

Two posts caught my eye, Lib Dems fiddle while the Net burns and Are we the party of empty rhetoric? and the concern was the party couldn’t move fast enough in the world of blogs and Twitter.

Yet the fears appeared to be unfounded and whilst it still doesn’t go as far as it could, Bridget Fox later today announced that

And I’ve now had a response through from Don Foster MP and the DCMS team, the full text of which is on my blog here.

Now it’s perhaps not the response as the Open Rights Group would have written it; but then I’m in favour of LibDem positions being written, well, by Liberal Democrats.

It’s a long text, setting out why our MPs feel parts of the Bill – on areas such as Channel 4 and regional TV – merit support; and why they want to balance internet freedom with support for the creative industries. So there is no commitment to vote against the Bill as a whole. But, unlike Labour and Tory front benches, the LibDem DCMS team do acknowledge that further debate is definitely required. “The controversial parts of the Bill will need to be scrutinised and voted upon by the next parliament before they can be brought into law. Liberal Democrats MPs would not support these sections of the Bill without this process.”

Indeed, I know full well what my Liberal Democrat candidate, Stephen Glenn, thinks of the Digital Economy Bill.  It is clearly stated on his blog.  I wrote, to my MP Michael Connarty to urge him to give the Bill proper scrutiny and not have it rushed through, but he has yet to respond.

It is very interesting to me (as someone who is new to politics) how the Liberal Democrat party works.  In public, taking criticism on board and having party members (non-MPs) help create party policy.    It is hard indeed to imagine the Labour party working this way.  Whilst Tom Watson MP is clear and certain in opposition to the Bill, he will never have a chance to change Labour’s stand on this bill.