Digital Love

If you are looking for a single reason to challenge the current political system in this country then you only have to look at the way the Digital Economy bill was passed through parliament last night. This is a piece of legislation which takes away your right to be innocent until proven guilty if your internet connection is suspected of being used for file sharing. It will now be our responsibility to prove we weren’t. This leaves us all at the mercy of the entertainment industries legal representatives when they decide to accuse us of infringement. I couldn’t afford thousands of pounds worth of legal fees and I doubt many people could and will be forced to pay them the nominal fees they ask for. There is also the fact that the woolly wording of the bill also leaves the opportunity to block websites which may have intent to supply illegal material. Sounds good a t first but then you realise that could be anything from Google and Youtube to whistleblowing sites such as wikileaks. In fact anything the Government feels is detrimental to the Government, maybe they could borrow the software from China.

So far, so annoyed. They also snuck in there the small fact that the analogue radio signal will be turned off thus rendering 100 million radios useless and everyone requiring a much more energy intensive digital DAB radio.

How was this passed you ask? It was passed at 2330 on a Wednesday night in front of around 50 MPs who debated the merits and twice as many sat in the bar until it came time for them to put down their G and T’s and go in and vote for the party line. Our elected representatives working hard for us once again, even after 20,000 people felt aggrieved enough to write to their MP’s about the bill. This is why our electoral system is broken.

When you vote in four weeks time remember how little the three main parties represent the general public and much they favour their business partners and sponsors.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="460" caption="Democracy in action"][/caption]