Digital Economy Bill

I recently contacted my MP about the Digital Economy Bill and got a response from his colleague as follows:

......As Members of Parliament are bound by a strict parliamentary protocol, they are not permitted to intervene in matters which have been raised by the constituents of other MPs. I would be grateful, therefore, if you could provide me with your address .......

Whilst I am glad they have taken the time to write I cannot believe my MP is not prepared to do anything merely citing a canned response to my query.

My response to this was as follows:

....Whilst I look forward to receiving the reply I am somewhat surprised by your response.

As my local member of Parliament, irrespective if the questions have been raised by other constituents I am asking My Farrelly to look at this bill, its implications and to ensure that a full debate is completed rather than it being rushed through as a knee jerk reaction.

Working in the technology arena I understand the arguments on both sides however I do not believe this bill is the solution. Through putting pressure on ISPs to administrate the legislation will increase prices of which will be passed onto the consumer. The tracking of someone's activity via their IP address is flawed as the address changes regularly thus requiring ISPs to procure additional measures to administer and log this. Lastly the proposed body that will arbitrate in any offence after 3 strikes should be done by a court of law with a jury and not an unelected body of peers.

Whilst Mr Farrelly may have more pressing engagements that he has to deal with he also needs to put this issue high on his agenda.

Should the bill be passed it will take a period of time to amend and possibly even remove off the statute law.

I believe there will be further incidents of wrongly accused people and the increased costs will have a negative effect on the initiative of providing broadband for all.

Further do we need these extra costs when the economy is just beginning to improve.

When there are major market players such as Google and TalkTalk that are against the bill it surely demands some of Mr Farrelly's time to ensure it is given the appropriate amount of debate.

I sincerely hope that Mr Farrelly will take the time to look at the bill, its implications should it become law and ensure that it gets the required time to provide a proper solution.....

I may be asking for too much and do hope my MP does take this request seriously but I am am some what negative that this will happen.

I will update this blog as and when further communication is sent.

Emails have been edited