AV is not proportional representation, but it’s far better than what we’ve got: it would be almost impossible for any system to be less proportional than FPTP; following the 2005 election, Labour won 40% of the available seats, despite only taking 35.2% of the vote. In the 2010 election, my MP was elected by less than 50% of the electorate in my constituency.
On the flip-side, AV would allow voters to rank their choices and an MP would only be elected after gaining the support of more than half of their electors. It would be possible to only vote for the candidates you liked, and perhaps even register a preference to re-open nominations over electing one candidate.

Unfortunately, some Conservative MPs are trying to influence the referendum already, ten months before it even happens, by making uncounted votes – those of electors who choose not to cast their opinion – mean a vote against the proposal, by demanding a threshold of 40% of the electorate. Whilst it may be fair to assume that a non-voter does not care, it is fundamentally wrong to assume that they do not want the proposal. If a member of the electorate actively cares and wishes to vote against something, after all, they will do so.

Thresholds are not used in elections, and I question the need for them at a referendum; indeed, Bernard Jenkin MP, who I believe to be the proposer of the threshold, is one of 95% of MPs who wouldn’t have been elected had there been a 40% threshold in May. I believe that it would be a travesty to make the very referendum deciding whether or not to use a fairer method of voting an unfair vote itself.

I’ve written to my MP conveying these thoughts because whilst I realise that the Alternative Vote system would likely not benefit the his party, Labour, I don’t see supporting a referendum as supporting AV itself, and of course, Labour promised a referendum on AV as a part of their manifesto prior to the General Election, and I want to make sure that at least one of his constituents cares about reforming the vote to make it fairer. If you’d like to write to your MP, Take Back Parliament have an excellent template and easy-to-use form to do.

Simply put, the Act imposes disproportionate, collective punishment and does not follow the principle of innocent until proven guilty, contravening the Magna Carta, which in 1215 stated that, as a basic human right, no person may be punished without a fair trial.

In summary, the Digital Economy Act is a massive insult to our civil liberties and I, and many others, believe that the Government should repeal it in its entirety in the upcoming Freedom Bill as a matter of urgency, with the less objectionable clauses being redrafted and discussed democratically in the Houses of Parliament to pave the way for a proper digital economy which does not punish innocent people.

If you also support the repeal of the Digital Economy Act, please consider registering with YourFreedom, the Government’s initiative to get everyday people involved in restoring and defending freedom and civil liberties, and rating my suggestion to repeal the Act.

For a short while, it worked fabulously, but I started experiencing problems around the time I moved to London – first, it crashed mid-update and as the part being updated at the time was GNOME, I rebooted to find myself minus a GUI. I’m not sure what else happened that day, but it was quite a struggle getting it functional again – even Denny, who eventually got it working, had no idea why his solution worked. Ever since, I’ve had to boot into the older version of the kernel, which meant that I couldn’t just switch on, wander off and let it do its thing, but instead I had to wait for the boot menu to come up each time. Given that the machine frequently switched itself off for no apparent reason, this happened a lot.
Less critically, but more annoying (largely due to frequency, but thanks to other factors as well): crashes. Lots of crashes, both individual programs (mostly Iceweasel but even Terminal on occasion) and the machine itself.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve (probably understandably) become increasingly irritated with the host of problems and started thinking up solutions. At first, I was planning to start again with a fresh copy of Debian and then I remembered that Canonical had recently released a new edition of Ubuntu and decided to create a bootable flash drive with LiveCD functionality to give it a try – and at 1am last night, unable to sleep, I realised my opportunity and began downloading Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition.

You’d think that if you start reinstalling your operating system at one in the morning, you’re in for a long night. On this occasion, it was fortunately not true – although I was suitably knackered by the time 3am rolled around and I could suspend the computer and hit the pillows.

As dirty as I feel saying it, having really quite liked using Debian, I’m really enjoying my experience of UNE so far.
I happily got into using it pretty swiftly, having used the system it’s based on and worked out preferred programs and settings for them.

I did have one niggling aesthetic thing going on at first – the default setting that all windows are maximised on opening – but this was easily fixed by running gconf-editor, finding maximus in the apps folder and checking the “no_maximise” box.

I’ve yet to try my mobile broadband stick with the new setup, but being the standard one provided to Vodafone PAYG customers, now at least six months old, I’m fairly confident that if it doesn’t work automatically, I’ll find a solution easily enough with the power of Google.

Of course, I may be enjoying a geek-form of NRE, but I am really enjoying it so far and would, at this point, happily recommend UNE (something I never thought I’d hear myself say!).

I was fuming, and I’m still annoyed about it, because I sat there and I listened to the speakers talk about violence against women, and time and time again I was told that men who abuse and rape are evildoers, how male violence has to be stopped, and I thought, what about female perpetrators? What about all the victims of abuse in same-sex relationships? What about everyone else who suffers at the hands of others?

I mentioned this to a woman standing next to me, and she said “well, this is about male violence against women, isn’t it?” – and I couldn’t argue with that, because it was exactly right: Reclaim the Night began as a group of women protesting about the violence, assault and abuse women experienced from men, and it became a tradition. Women would march with one another for empowerment and rights and to make people pay attention. It died out, for a while, but then the London Feminist Network picked it back up and today, thanks to them, we once again storm the streets of our cities and towns to make a statement about women’s rights, and after five years, the tradition is back.

But who says traditions are necessarily right? Tradition is that men have careers whilst women stay at home and cook and clean and look after the children, tradition is that married women take their husband’s name, tradition is that women are meek and quiet, seen but not heard – but over the years, women have challenged those traditions and turned them around.

This is the 21st century, and I believe it’s time that this tradition moved on. It’s not true that in order to be a feminist, you must be a cisgendered woman, and it’s not true that women are only abused by men: we are bisexual, gay, lesbian, queer, pansexual, somewhere in between or something else entirely; some of us don’t even have labels for our sexuality or genders at all, and some of us aren’t even abused by our lovers, but family members, employers, people we think of as friends…

Women do not suffer only at the hands or under the control of men, and I believe it’s time that feminist activists all around the country opened their minds a little more: we’re moving forwards all the time, and this is just another step in our path: accepting women who don’t fit the feminist stereotype and admitting not only that some guys are actually decent people, but that feminists don’t have to have a specific chromosome, that feminists don’t have to identify as women, and of course, that some women can be just as bad when it comes to violence against women.

I understand and support autonomy. I get safe spaces. However, I also see brothers and sisters being pushed away when we need their support more than ever. I would never suggest that everyone who wants an end to violence against women should march together, because I see that women alone can be strong, but if we are ever going to win our fight, we cannot continue to ignore and exclude the very people who want to help us, because we do need them.

If you are part of a feminist organisation which excludes people who want to help your fight for whatever reason, do the right thing and, where it’s appropriate, demand that your group starts to welcome any feminist into your circles, no matter who they are or how they identify. This is change that’s long overdue.

The way I see it, the people who have my medical details already have them, and the people who don’t, don’t need them. I feel it’s safer to opt out at this stage, where I’m not certain even the NHS know how private my data will be, than to have to deal with the fall-out later – at least, if it does turn out to be a good thing, then I can opt back in with much less hassle than demanding that my data be deleted.

Should your panic button not have been pressed by Elizabeth Dove’s story alone, Emma Byrne wrote today about the problems with Summary Care Records and privacy for the Open Rights Group blog, and the post is well worth a read.

Additionally, Power2010 is calling for a halt on the Summary Care Records scheme itself until a full review is conducted, and has a tool for writing to your MP asking for them to support the cause; below is my own letter, adapted from their suggested text, which I sent to Nick Raynsford today.

Mr Raynsford,

As I mentioned in my email yesterday, the new Government has now committed to scrapping the ID card scheme, the National Identity Register and the ContactPoint database, which to my mind is a great thing; however, Connecting for Health is currently pushing for the uploading of patient medical records to the Summary Care Record scheme. It is the belief of myself and many others that this presents a serious threat to medical confidentiality.

Evidence has been provided by two independent studies from University College London that the SCR scheme delivers few of the claimed benefits, and another body is due to report its findings in the next six weeks.

I would like you to ask the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, to put a stop on the Summary Care Record scheme, pending a full enquiry into whether or not it is really useful, and how secure personal data that is uploaded will be.

Thank you.

I am seething because throughout the show, which focused on four chidren and teenagers diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the narrator referred to the subjects by the wrong pronouns – that is, the pronoun of their birth gender, rather than chosen gender. The family of the children got it right, of course, and the narrator used the chosen names, but then later, often in the same sentence, followed it up with the wrong pronoun; at 33:25, for example:

“12 year old Bailey was born a girl, but since the age of 8, she’s lived her life as a boy.”

I’ve watched a fair number of the Bodyshock programs before and have always been impressed by how carefully and respectfully they present the medical conditions that each program is about; this time, however, I’m incensed, because these children are portrayed talking to their parents about incredibly serious subjects like gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy, and how they’ve known for many years that they don’t belong in the body they were born into – and the narrator (or, more likely, script writer) has rubbished it all by using the wrong pronouns.

I know what you’re thinking – “they’re just kids, they’re too young to really be sure” – but that’s rubbish. These kids have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; it doesn’t smell like they don’t know what they’re talking about to me.

I’m not trans myself. For many years, I didn’t feel a whole lot of connection going on with my biology, but I’m a lot more comfortable with my body now and I identify as female and cisgendered. Still, this angers me, because I know quite a few people who are trans/genderqueer/whatever-label-they-like and I’ve learnt a little about it from them, and I consider myself to be an ally; that said, unless I’m invited to, I don’t generally go fighting the fight for other people, fighting a fight that’s not my own.

This time, I’m standing up and saying actually, I’ve got a problem with this, because these kids and their families have agreed to let the film-makers into their lives so that they can document their stories, and the people making the program don’t appear to have any respect for the decisions they and their families have made and are making, and that, in my mind, is wrong.

I’ll be forwarding a copy of this post to Bodyshock at the end of May; not to demand anything of them, because this isn’t about me, but to tell them that people out there think that this kind of thing is not okay, in the hope it might not happen again, that in future, they’ll show a bit more respect for the people they’re making programs about.

If you’d like to sign this letter as well, please comment*, or drop me an email and I’ll add your name along with mine.

* if you’re seeing this syndicated somewhere other than tajasel.org, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave your comment on the original post to keep them all together.

They also state the intention to scrap the identity card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database – and they work fast: the Home Office page about identity cards is currently displaying a 404 error.

The list continues with:

• outlawing finger-printing of school children without parental permission
• extending the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency
• adopting the Scottish approach of not retaining the DNA of innocent people
• protecting our human right to a trial by jury when accused
• restoring and protecting the right to non-violent protest
• reviewing libel laws with the intention of protecting freedom of speech
• safeguarding against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation, such as police officers using Section 44 against photographers
• regulating the use of CCTV more
• an end to the storage of Internet and email records without good reason
• preventing the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.
• ending the detention of children for immigration purposes

This sort of thing makes a civil liberties and human rights campaigner like myself very happy.

It is not, of course, the end of the road, and does not mean that people like me will not need to campaign anymore, because of course, we need to ensure that this sort of thing keeps happening and that the Government doesn’t take steps backwards – but, regardless, it is a Very Positive Thing.

Many are showing reluctance to get too excited about this and reserving judgment until the details of the proposed Bill become public, and perhaps they are right to with obvious omissions such as repealing the Digital Economy Act, making the NHS Summary Care Records scheme opt-in instead of opt-out and several other things, as pointed out by Richard King.
Still, I’m willing to stick my neck out here and say that I think the fact that the Bill has even been proposed is fantastic news after 13 years of a Labour Government systematically destroying civil liberties and rights – and, of course, we have something to celebrate in the death of identity cards.

PRIME MINISTER – DAVID CAMERON
I don’t like Cameron one bit. He doesn’t know anything about the people he thinks he can govern; he knows Eton and foxhunting and protecting his piles of money, sure, but he doesn’t know or care about the people of Britain, many of whom are unemployed, disabled, non-straight, people of colour… his Conservatives say they want to “bring back Britain”, but you can’t do that: our country has moved on, for the better, and he has to work with it, not push against it. I don’t think he knows what’s best for our nation, and I don’t trust him to do this right.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER – NICK CLEGG
I haven’t been involved with the Liberal Democrats long enough to know what the party was like before Clegg, but unlike his opposition, I do like and trust him. I’ll be watching carefully to see how he performs in Questions when Cameron’s away. Speaking of which, can we get paternity rights improved sometime soon…?

CHANCELLOR – GEORGE OSBORNE
Another one I really don’t like; he makes a good politician in that he’s full of impressive amounts of hot air, but to say I’m not convinced that he’s right for the job would be an understatement. Should have been Cable.

HOME SECRETARY AND MINISTER FOR WOMEN AND EQUALITY – THERESA MAY
I don’t know enough about her to comment on the Home Secretary side of her roles, but really? Making a pro-life homophobe the Women and Equalities Minister? What were they thinking?
ETA: apparently, the wonderful, wonderful Lynne Featherstone will be May’s assistant on the equalities side of things, which makes this rather easier to swallow: she has an impeccable record, excellent views on equality and a marvellous work ethic.

LORD CHANCELLOR AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR JUSTICE – KEN CLARKE
Another one of those rare good Tories. He seems quite liberal, in comparison to other Conservatives, and I hope he’ll do as well as people are predicting.

CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY – DAVID LAWS
This seems like the ideal position for him; I’m confident.

FOREIGN SECRETARY – WILLIAM HAGUE
I don’t actually mind Hague too much; as Tories go, I find myself having to respect him a tiny amount, at least. I think he’ll do the job well.

DEFENCE SECRETARY – DR LIAM FOX
I don’t know a lot about this guy, but from what I’ve read, he’ll suck at defence and should have stayed in health.

BUSINESS SECRETARY – VINCE CABLE
I’ve said it before, but he really should have been Chancellor. Still, second-best option. I feel fairly secure he’ll do well here, and hope that he can give Osborne a few pointers in the right direction.

WORK AND PENSIONS – IAIN DUNCAN SMITH
The DWP already sucks and I foresee it getting a whole lot worse.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE – CHRIS HUHNE
Huhne is generally a good guy. It was during his fight for leadership that I first started paying attention to politics, and I supported him, even though I wasn’t entirely clued up on what was really going on. I think he’ll do well.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SECRETARY – ERIC PICKLES
He ran Bradford Council… into the ground, as best as I can tell. My housemates are civil servants, and already scared, which I suspect says it all.

CULTURE, OLYMPICS, MEDIA AND SPORT – JEREMY HUNT
Was involved in ramming through the Digital Economy Bill. Whilst his predecessor will be hard to beat on the scale of badness, I’m still really unconvinced Hunt is going to do this well.

I voted Liberal Democrat, not that it made any difference in my constituency. In fact, one of the reasons I voted Liberal Democrat was precisely that: my vote didn’t count, and electoral reform is right up near the top of my list of important political things.

I don’t think the Liberal Democrats are doing this because they think it’s a good idea; they are doing it because they promised that they would support the party with the biggest mandate, and because something had to be done – a minority Government led by the Tories would be far too unstable. This may well prove to be the same, with Cameron eventually demanding another election when he finds Clegg obstructing him whenever he wants to do something terrible to the country – but we’ll have to wait and see for that.

Perhaps we, and the Lib Dems themselves, would rather they sit back and let whatever happens happen, or see a coalition with Labour, but that would not have been sensible: not only did 61% of the votes go to parties other than Labour, making it incredibly undemocratic and against the Lib Dems pre-election promise, but (I hear) Labour refused to back down on the database state/ID card scheme, a deal breaker for Clegg and one of the many reasons I support the Lib Dems. (Don’t make me choose between a Tory Government and the database state, though, please…)

We can ask all we like for elections to be held over and over again until the “right answer” comes up but that’s like repeatedly rolling a dice in a board game; eventually, someone will out you as a cheat.

This is not the result I wanted, far from it – but I think I can live with it. I think, and I hope.

I want to wake up on Friday to find that our new Prime Minister is Nick Clegg, or failing that, that we will be governed by a Lib/Lab coalition. Please: if you like the Liberal Democrats, vote for us. A Liberal Democrat vote is a vote for change, for a fairer Britain – and goodness knows we need it.

The idea that the Liberal Democrats can’t win so there is no point in voting for them is a self-fulfilling prophecy; a liberal vote is not a wasted vote anymore.

Labour and the Tories, in my mind, do not represent the future our country needs. I want a good NHS, improved access to education and fairer taxes. I want improve equality and to maintain human rights. I want the Liberal Democrats in power. It’s your choice who you vote for, but if you can’t decide, there’s still time: Vote For Policies can help you to choose.

Whoever you choose to vote for, if you are eligible to have your say, you have 13 hours in which to do so. The polls open in less than seven hours. Do the right thing.

I’m where I have been since noon (less the hour I took off to get food shopping for the week and eat something) – sat in front of a computer, entering canvass data into EARS, the database system that many Liberal Democrats groups use, ready for the last few mailshots before The Big Day.

It’s at times like this that I begin to wonder if I need an activism off-switch.

At first, it was mind-numbing, and it feel like my brain was turning to mush and dripping out of my ears, but now I know all the keyboard shortcuts and can do it without even looking at the screen, and it’s almost fun.

…which perhaps reinforces the point about the off-switch.

• The Freedom Bill
• The banks, the credit crunch and Vince Cable
• The Green Economy
• Electoral and Parliamentary Reform
• Fellow Liberal Democrats
• Education
• Fairness

(I expect there to be more over the next four days running up to The Big Day, for what it’s worth, so if these have been interesting to you, keep your eyes peeled!)

I could get married if I wanted to, but only to a man. If I wanted to “marry” a woman, I would have to have a civil partnership. A civil partnership is that thing people call “gay marriage”.

It’s not gay marriage. It’s not even marriage, but that’s a different rant entirely. Appreciating people of the same sex as me does not mean that I am gay; it means that I appreciate people of the same sex as me.

If I’m in a relationship with another woman, it is a same-sex relationship, not a gay relationship. If I want a civil partnership, it is a civil partnership (or if you insist, same-sex marriage) – not gay marriage. I don’t want gay rights; I want equal rights.

Please, can we drop this idea that there is such a thing as gay marriage, that there was once a separate “gay age of consent” and that we’re fighting for “gay rights”? It’s not just about L and G anymore; I am bisexual, and I exist.

• Register to vote. Make sure you do this by April 20th 2010.
• Join the Open Rights Group! They are a digital rights advocacy group who aim to “preserve and promote your rights in the digital age”.
• Join Democracy Club, a group of volunteers dedicating time to holding electoral candidates to account.
• Thank and/or campaign for the 32 MPs standing in the General Election who voted against the Bill.
• If your MP voted for the Digital Economy Bill, write to them and ask them why.
• Check out how your MP voted before you cast your ballot.
• Join ORG’s campaign meetings on Thursday evenings, either in person or by dialling into the conference call. (You will be welcomed regardless of whether you’re a member or not, whatever your political affiliation, as long as you want to fight this legislation.

If you have any further suggestions, please add them in the comments.

The Digital Economy Bill passed tonight, less clauses 18 (on website blocking) and 43 (on orphan rights). Just 47 MPs voted against the Bill; I’d like to offer special kudos to Tom Watson for breaking whip for the first time, even in the face of a three line whip.
Parliament’s website shows that Royal Assent comes next but it is, effectively, British law.

The fight is not over, mind. I don’t know where we go from here just yet, but I know that parts of this Bill are deeply, deeply wrong, and I won’t rest until Clauses 11-17 are gone for good.

The Digital Economy Bill received it’s second reading in Parliament yesterday, and will be further discussed later on this evening. It’s been ten weeks since I first wrote to my MP, Nick Raynsford, asking how he felt on the issue, and have so far received two replies, both of which have evaded the question. I’ve already written about the first of these; the second letter, received yesterday, told me that he was sorry he hadn’t been able to meet me at one of his surgeries and also that I was dissatisfied with his original letter, and that he would not sign Early Day Motion 1223 as he does not consider EDMs in general a sensible method of highlighting concerns.

Of course, my not being in London for his surgeries is, if anybody’s, my fault; however, his office refused me an appointment at Westminster because they don’t require constituents to travel to Parliament to meet Mr Raynsford. I pointed out several times that I was quite happy to come to his offices, but still I was met with refusal.

I spoke to someone from his office today about the second reading and continued debate tonight, asking why he was not in Commons last night and again, for his opinion on the Bill. I was told that he actually was in the Commons for last night’s debate, though a fellow constituent in #openrightsgroup on IRC tells me that they recognise him, and didn’t see him on the parliamentlive.tv video and so whilst he might have been there, he seriously doubts it.

I also told them that I was quite keen to hear Mr Raynsford’s opinion of the Bill as human rights, which I believe the Bill affects, is an important issue to me and affects how I vote. The member of staff told me, in not so many words, that he didn’t believe me, due to my candidacy in local elections as a Liberal Democrat, and whilst it’s true that I do not feel much desire to vote Labour locally or nationally at this stage, I am always open to having my mind changed. There’s also the crucial point that I am not standing against Mr Raynsford as a PPC: I am standing as a local councillor, and there’s a pretty big difference between the two. You’d think (hope?) that someone working for an MP would know that kind of thing…

You never know, one day before I have to cast my vote, I might just get to hear how Mr Raynsford feels about punishing people without a fair trial. I won’t be holding my breath, though.

Whilst my plan for the day had been to sit in the public gallery of the Houses of Commons to hear the second reading of the Digital Economy Bill, which I’ve been working on a campaign against for the last four months, it was actually my first day in a new job as a campaigns intern for the Islington Liberal Democrats, so I spent the day at their headquarters in North London, helping prepare campaign materials for the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in Islington South, Bridget Fox. The office was buzzing, but the most exciting thing of the day for me came after work (and I’m not talking about the Chilango’s burrito I picked up on the way home…).

This evening, I signed a big pile of forms for the Greenwich Borough Liberal Democrats, and I will soon be a candidate in next month’s local council election myself.

I’m reminded of when I first announced that I’d been elected onto the Union Council at university, and someone told me “when you’re an MP, I’ll say I’ll knew you when…” and I laughed and said I’d never get that ingrained in politics. I suppose it never quite works like you plan, does it?

Supporters of the Open Rights Group were called to arms again today, this time in Soho, Central London.

After meeting people at Tottenham Court Road Tube station, we dished out maps and police helmets and sent them over to British Music House, where shortly afterwards, I arrived with other ORG staff and the large disconnection notice for delivering to Mr Sharkey.

Sadly, shortly after we arrived, the doors were closed on us and we weren’t able to give the notice to Feargal himself, so we held a short photocall and left it on the doorstep for him.

(If you haven’t seen the videos of last week’s protest yet, take a look now: ORG’s is on YouTube, and a supporter uploaded their footage to Vimeo!)

In the last two months, I have sent several emails requesting that response, exchanged many phonecalls and waiting at Westminster for an hour waiting to speak to him or somebody from his office, to no avail – I’m beginning to wonder if he’s avoiding me..!

Still, I have tried once more with another email:

I have learnt this morning that there is an Early Day Motion which states that the Bill is too important to be passed during wash-up and that it should be debated properly by the new Parliament, who can scrutinise it in detail, allowing it to pass through law democratically.

The full text EDM can be found here:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=40883&SESSION=903

If you support this, as I sincerely hope you do, I would like you to sign this motion. If you do not, I would appreciate an explanation as to why, along with your opinions of the Bill generally and how you intend to vote (particularly on Clauses 11-18) should it come to it.

We’re turning it around on Thursday. We’ll be presenting a heartfelt gesture of thanks to the people who brought you the tragi-comedy that is the Digital Economy Bill – but we need your help.

Please help us give them a thank you by joining a small protest for your lunch hour – our Top Secret flashmob. We can’t reveal precisely what we’re doing or where yet, except to say that we’ll meet you nearby.

Once again, we’ll have the placards and the leaflets: just bring yourself and some black tape to censor yourself with.

Meeting point: Central London. Exact location TBA – get a free ticket and we’ll let you know.
Date: Thursday 1st April 2010
Time: 12:20pm

Please help us give a big thank you to the people who brought you the UK’s biggest joke this year…

There are two ways to get the details as we release them:

• Order a ticket on Eventbrite
• RSVP as an attendee or a maybe on Facebook

Despite this, and thousands of letters directed at her from members of the public, I watched from the House of Commons public gallery this morning as Harriet Harman unequivocally told Members and the public that whilst she recognised that letting legislation pass without debate is a bad thing, she felt the Digital Economy Bill to contain important clauses and so it would be eligible for debate during wash-up.

It now seems likely that the Digital Economy Bill will be debated on Tuesday 6th April, which is likely to be the day Gordon Brown asks the Queen for permission to dissolve Parliament in readiness for the General Election, meaning that this entire potentially very damaging Bill will have a matter of hours discussion.

If your MP, like mine, has told you that the Bill won’t be discussed due to time constraints, it’s time to write back and call them on that. We have a matter of weeks, and I’m going to be spending every minute I can fighting this thing. Are you?

The UK Government is currently trying to push through legislation which threatens to disconnect people from the Internet for infringing copyright – that is, downloading music and films illegally – and the Open Rights Group have organised a protest against the Bill this evening near the Houses of Parliament in London.

Disconnection from the Internet is a seriously disproportionate punishment: if a person is caught fare-dodging on the buses, we don’t ban their entire family from using the bus for an unspecified length of time because they may need the bus – yet an Internet connection is seen as disposable. Perhaps it is to some people, but to others, it’s a necessity, required for school or university work, careers, jobhunting and staying in touch with far away friends and relatives.

It’s not just innocent families that will lose their connection either: libraries, educational institutions and other public wifi providers such as coffee shops and bars are likely to be hit – threatened with monetary fines in addition to disconnection, many of them will stop providing Internet access, and as a result, lose customers to larger chains who can afford the risk.

We realise that copyright infringement is a problem, and we’re not opposing the Digital Economy Bill because we’re freeloaders who want to protect our downloads: the Internet promotes freedom of expression and helps us to study, work and communicate, and losing it means losing some of our fundamental human rights.

So, for Ada Lovelace Day 2010, I want to celebrate all the women who will be joining me at that protest. Thankyou for helping us stand up for our rights.

I’ve responded to Mr Raynsford, explaining to him that:

• I don’t buy his claim that he didn’t reply to my letter for over six weeks because he was waiting for a reply, because my original question was how he personally felt about the Bill. I didn’t want a response from Peter Mandelson, because I know how he feels already: if he didn’t support the proposals, he surely would not have submitted them in the first place.
• I also don’t buy his claim that he couldn’t scrutinise the Bill properly: I have been perfectly able to do so myself online for many months, and I have been paying attention to the Lords debates on the subject to find out which amendments passed and which didn’t; if I can do that, there is no reason for him not to be able to, especially knowing that his constituents have concerns about the Bill.
• As he failed to tell me how he personally felt about the Digital Economy Bill, he did not answer my question.
• That I am even more concerned about the Digital Economy Bill than I was before, because whilst he thinks it will not be passed, many campaigning organisations, and myself, believe that the Government will rush it through without proper debate before Parliament dissolves.

I have asked for another reply in which he answers my question and assures me that he will demand the Digital Economy Bill is properly debated at his earliest convenience. I hope it takes less than 7 weeks this time.

Write to your MP to ensure that this doesn’t happen – 38 Degrees and the Open Rights Group have teamed up to make it really easy: all you have to do is tell them your postcode, name and email address, and you can join over 10,000 people who have already written to their MPs.  Make your voice heard – do it now!

Why Should I Care?

Consumers and companies (including Google, Facebook and Internet Service Providers themselves) alike are up in arms about the Bill, which proposes that an Internet connection could be cut off if there is suspicion that it is being used for the downloading of copyrighted content.  Whilst this may seem fair on the surface, it is in fact very disturbing:

• Although proof is required before disconnection, the evidence does not have to relate to you: you can be punished for the actions of a friend or even a neighbour who has used your Internet connection.
• Rights holders would have the power to demand that sites they believe to contravene copyright law be blocked by ISPs.
• It is not the perpetrator that is punished, as you might expect, but the owner of the connection, and others using it, meaning that cafés and bars may have to stop providing wifi.

Regardless of what you do or don’t do, you could be punished for the actions of others because of laws put in place by the Digital Economy Bill: if you have unsecured wifi in your home, you could be punished; if you use the Internet at your local coffee shop or library, you could lose access to that connection.

Justice would not be completely out of reach: you could appeal, but you would have to pay for the privilege, and you wouldn’t be eligible for any legal aid.  Reasons for appeal are limited, and unlike in a trial, the onus would not be on rights holders to prove your guilt: you would be responsible for proving your innocence.

This will be voted upon in the very near future by your MP, and we need to ensure that the Bill is properly debated, and that all MPs know how dangerous it is to individuals and small businesses.  If we don’t ensure that it is properly scrutinised, the Bill could pass and have severe effects on the freedom and rights of innocent people, educational establishments and small businesses alike.

Don’t let this Bill get rushed through without a proper debate: write to your MP now!

What Else Can I Do?

Write to your local paper
Attend our demonstration outside Parliament on Wednesday 24th March 2010.

I’m writing to you as I would like you know your opinion of the Digital Economy Bill, which I have several concerns about, especially given the recent amendments put in by Peers in the House of Lords. I realise that it is unlikely you will have a chance to vote on this Bill, as it is being rushed through before the General Election; I’d like to hear your opinion regardless.

The Digital Economy Bill outlines that an Internet connection could be disconnected by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) if a copyright holder suspects that it is being used for copyright infringement. The theory behind this is that people download music and films from the Internet, and the best way to stop them from doing that is to remove their Internet access.

The problems with this are as follows:
* no proof against the suspect is required before punishment, which goes against human rights laws and our “innocent until proven guilty” justice system
* disconnection is a disproportionate punishment
* defences and the appeals process are unclear
* availability of public Internet access will be threatened

As such, I am shocked that the Government is still pushing this through after complaints from both consumers and companies – Internet users, Google, Facebook, eBay and numerous Internet providers have spoken out against the Bill. I recognise that copyright infringement is an issue, but these proposals are madness: a different solution involving fair trial and sensible punishment is needed.

I can go into further details about these points if you wish, but felt it better to highlight my issues first, and arrange to speak to you further afterwards if necessary. I look forward to your response.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a supporter and employee of the Open Rights Group, a digital rights advocacy organisation; however, I am writing to you in a personal capacity as a Greenwich and Woolwich resident. I will be writing to all PPCs about this issue.

This is a modified version of the letter which I sent to my MP, Nick Raynsford, on 27th January 2010; to date, I have not received a response from him. I’ve also written to my local paper, Greenwich Time suggesting that other constituents do the same as me. The Open Rights Group has notes to guide you on writing to your local paper on its website, if you need it.

As it stands now, the Bill, if passed into law, will allow disconnection, web blocking and could see the death of open wifi.

Come along to the ORG demo on Wednesday 24th March at 17:30 and protest against disconnection without trial and censorship on the Internet.

We’ll have placards; just bring some black tape to gag or blindfold yourself, and invite your friends!

Disconnection is a collective punishment.  It is unacceptable, unfair and disproportionate.

The demo will be at Old Palace Yard (opposite Parliament, next to Westminster Abbey).
Tell us you are coming by requesting a “ticket” on Eventbrite so that we can contact you if necessary – you don’t need to bring your ticket with you.

If you can’t make it to London, why not set up your own demo?  Choose a prominent place in your home town; if possible, a local party HQ or MP constituency office, and let us know and we’ll advertise it on our website.

http://bit.ly/disconnection
Facebook Event: Stop Disconnection Demo

This means that as well as the everyday consumer, businesses and educational institutions will be responsible for activities of subscribers. Several official bodies, including the FSB and JANET (the network to which all educational and research institutions are connected), have asked the Government what they’re going to do about this but the response so far seems to be that as you can block copyright infringing activities, any subscriber neglecting to do so will be responsible for the actions of their users: in other words, “use a firewall”.

We still believe that this Bill fails to address the actual problem, and public confidence in the justice system will continue to fail. Please: write to your MP, and as ever, if you need any help with doing so, contact me.

These events came about after we realised that some people talking to their MPs weren’t getting anywhere because they were pushing against the copyright infringement side of the Bill, and we wanted to explain that they’d be better off fighting the due process side of the argument: that is, that disconnecting people without fair trial and allowing the secretary of business to amend copyright law as he saw fit was disproportionate and unfair.

Would you like to gain the confidence to talk and write to your MP, or rehearse talking to your MP one on one? We can help with this, and more: find out what MPs will ask you, learn how to write to your MP and get a response and meet other people campaigning against disconnection without trial in the Digital Economy Bill.

We believe that a lot of people don’t realise how easy it is to book an appointment to speak to their MP in person, or that doing this is the most effective way of ensuring Parliament knows and understands how unpopular the Digital Economy Bill really is.

We are running several short sessions in which you can try out talking to someone roleplaying the position of an MP and learn how to get your points across in a way that an MP will understand.

We have four events confirmed:
January 23rd in Manchester
January 24th in Edinburgh
January 30th in London

The fourth event will take place in Sheffield on January 27th as part of the Sheffield GeekUp unconference and there will be a choice of two sessions available: to register, see http://undeb-org.eventbrite.com.

All events are free, but booking is *essential* due to limited places. We hope to see you there.