Future of Digital Economy Bill will test new government

Tomas Mowlam

Rejoice we have a government. It seems it’s not a government any of us voted for but that’s the danger of democracy for you. 

The big question however is that in this shaky new coalition how is Lib Dem ideology going to hold up? 

In the election Labour felt the judgement of a public fed up with their mistakes. Of which there were many. As a tech journalist who also writes about civil liberties, for me one of the worst mistakes was the Digital Economy Bill (DEB); it’s where Labour’s failure to understand technology and their assault on civil liberties fused in legislation. Its future however is going to be a test of the new coalition.

To swiftly re-cap; the DEB promises draconian penalties for file sharing, was terribly vague about what would be considered legal and few MPs really understood the technology they were discussing. These included Stephen Timms, Labour MP for East Ham, and as the ex-Minister for Digital Britain responsible for pushing through the DEB. 

In a letter to MP Emily Thornberry he referred to IP address as standing for Intellectual Property (it stands for Internet Protocol), though it was conceivably written by a staffer. During the brief debate of the bill Timms referred to password (WEP) protected Wi-Fi as being secure (it’s not). Though he should have known better, he wasn’t alone amongst MPs in the House in not understanding the technology.

Despite arguments from MPs like Tom Watson that the Bill was unsound, it was run through during the wash-up and passed 189 votes to 47. 

Nick Clegg’s pre-election attitude to the bill was unequivocal; "it was rammed through after the election was called in the last dying days of the Parliament in something called a 'wash-up'. 

“It wasn't a wash-up, it was a stitch-up. A stitch-up between Labour and Conservative MPs who decided that you didn't deserve to have your representatives in Parliament properly looking at a bill which might have a very, very serious impact on the way that you use the internet."

Cameron said the Tories let it slide through because “we thought it was important to let the good bits of that bill through” in order to protect British music and film industry. 

All 29 Lib-Dems MPs who voted, did vote against it, but how well will a clear pre-election commitment to repeal it fare in an alliance with the Tories who paid it no more than a passing glance? 

The fate of the DEB, something that Clegg called a “classic example of what's wrong with Westminster”, will be a great test of how the Lib Dems can keep their own identity in this coalition. 

* Tomas Mowlam is a journalist for PC Site which reviews and compares laptops and software. Follow him on Twitter: @tmowlam