Yeah - but I very rarely have a chance to post!

Julian

Hi - just to say some of us are already getting involved in opposing this - I've started by tabling some written questions about the proposals, and am expecting public answers next week...

Julian Huppert
Lib Dem MP for Cambridge

Great and many thanks ... Have we met? If you're interested in helping out we can always use assistance! There are plans - see for example http://www.libdemvoice.org/twentyfive-lib-dem-ppcs-sign-letter-asking-lib-dem-parliamentarians-to-think-again-on-digital-economy-bill-18185.html I'm expecting more shortly ... Julian

Exactly - this is not Lib Dem party policy! See http://www.makeitpolicy.org.uk/it-policy-paper/delivering-the-information-society/regulation-of-internet-content-and-copyright/ Certainly I as Lib Dem Candidate for Cambridge don't support it - and I'm very much not alone in the Lib Dems! Julian

Please do continue to vote Lib Dem! Our party policy on this is fairly clear, but we can't entirely control what individual parliamentarians do, especially Lords .... (elected Lords anybody?) I should say that I'm the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge ... I and many colleagues have contacted the party and those peers to push the party line - which is clearly against any sort of DMCA-UK. You may be interested in official party policy at http://www.makeitpolicy.org.uk/it-policy-paper/delivering-the-information-society/regulation-of-internet-content-and-copyright/ Otherwise, can I suggest you write to your local candidate and ask them what they think? You'll find many of us on the Open Rights side .... Julian

Sorry - this is wrong on a number of levels - as the poster notes later, the Liberal Democrats (NB not the Liberals, an extremely small rump party) didn't get more votes that the Conservatives, sadly. We (I was a parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems, coming in second) did get rather fewer seats than our vote share reflected, as a result of FPTP - we need to change the electoral system. clearly. However, I don't think it's fair to say that there is significant Gerrymandering in the UK - the Boundary Commission works quite fairly here (again, I've been a witness at one of their hearings). It does take fewer votes to elect a Labour MP than a Tory MP, but this is essentially because of lower turn-outs in labour strongholds than Conservative ones. Unless constituency sizes are changed based on turnouts rather than population or number of registered voters, this will always be a problem with any constituency-based system. Julian