The Digital Economy Bill proves digital democracy doesn't work

17. "This stuff is only going to change if people start voting for parties outside the 'big 2' (or indeed 3). Choose your vote carefully this year, folks"

The phrase "bit on the @rse" springs to mind.

16. This is not unprecedented and goes on all the time. The DEB reminds me of the draconian anti rave/protest/sub culture laws concealed within Michael Howard's Criminal Justice Bill. These laws still exist and facilitated the roll out of blanket surveillance and erosion of privacy and civil liberties that Labour have built on in the guise of the nanny state since coming to power and are extending into the digital realm. In the right hands these laws could facilitate a transition from Nanny to Police State.

15. "What's really depressing about all of this isn't the Bill itself, although of course that's a travesty. It's that for the first time, thousands of us have seen how UK politics really works."

That one caught my attention me lol

14. Greg Clark, MP for Tunbridge Wells clearly also doesnt care about his consituants as he didnt bother to vote either.

13. That's really quite depressing.

12. "That's crazy, unless it's a stitch-up to make Labour look bad"

That's about the size of it, sadly. Individuals abstain for all sorts of valid reasons, but when parties abstain it's usually some sort of calculation (or very, very rarely, a declaration of "we find both options totally unpalatable").

With this parliament constructed as it is, the Tories know that if they abstain, Labour are guaranteed to win. They wanted the bill passed (or didn't care if it was) but they didn't want to be responsible. My feeling is that there've been a lot of arguments at Tory HQ about this.

11. Aaaaagh! The starred-out word rhymes with tray! If you added the letter R, it would spell Gray! It also means happ-ay! Etc!

10. The starred-out word in my last post is *** btw. Blame foul-mouthed teenagers for the overzealous filtering.

Liquidindian: yes, you're absolutely right. I saw one comment on MetaFilter suggesting that the Open Rights Group annoyed some MPs enough that they decided to let the bill go through just to annoy them. I need to stress that I have no idea whether that's true or not :)

Blur_group: I think thus far it's largely about what social media can do to spread the party line, rather than how social media can improve two-way communications. Generally they want us to be fans rather than to say bad things on their Facebook Wall :)

My MP's an example of that. Used YouTube to say how scary the bill was. Was in contact with me and other via Twitter to say how scary the Bill was. Didn't attend the debates or the vote. So the social media is really just being used for broadcasting.

Blueporcupine: Didn't realise Redwood didn't vote. That's crazy, unless it's a stitch-up to make Labour look bad ("They voted for it, not us"). In complete agreement with your comment, it'd be a shame if the energy just went away.

9. I do think politicians' use of social media is largely window dressing, but it's interesting to see how social media is being used against politicians, eg with some of the sites showing how MPs voted and so on. Another interesting one is www.my***vote.co.uk, which shows the record of the various parties on GLBT issues.

8. There's a lot of anger at MPs, but we're hardly blameless in all this - 'we' meaning the British public. The vast majority of the time, we completely ignore the day-to-day in parliament, two-fifths of us can't be arsed to vote every few years, and there's a whole load of sniffy moralising about "noses in the trough" and "they're all the same" which seems to be mostly (if not completely) unjustified.

We then expect our MPs to listen when we start complaining that we might have our broadband cut off if we're caught downloading illegally, something that sounds pretty fair if you don't look at the details. Why would they listen? Most of the people signing petitions, writing to their MPs and bellowing on Twitter will never engage with politics for any other reason, so mollifying them is a waste of time.

7. Good blog- For all of the hype surrounding the first real use of social media during a British General Election campaign, there does appear to be a sense of bewilderment among all three main parties. What can we do with social media? What’s a tweet- (see David Cameron’s on-air radio gaffe last year)? Let’s do a bit of Crowdsourcing! What’s Crowdsourcing?

The fairly blasé attitude of the politicians towards the Digital Economy Bill suggests that the use of social media during the election campaign will be just as half-baked. Should any of the three parties get their heads around the best use of social media, you can almost guarantee that they will let their crowds/forums/online debates fall apart once they’re safely back within the confines of Westminster.

Please feel free to check out my most recent blur Group blog: http://www.blurgroup.com/blog/blurgroup/how-can-british-politics-adapt-to-the-crowdsourcing-model#disqus_thread

6. This is a great piece. As a politico-nerd (LD), I've actually been really heartened by watching the #debill stream, because for once, people have been watching this **** happening, and seeing how bad things really are.

But, once we're all over the initial disappointment, I kind of hope we will start to move beyond "They're all *******s and there's no point" and get to some analysis, because that's the only way anything is going to change.

Look at what actually happened last night - plenty of noise and thunder in the house from vocal opponents from all three sides. Then the govt's tame poodles of 190-odd Labour MPs who hadn't taken part in the debate just turned up and voted the way the whip told them to.

I cannot stress enough that this is what happens *all the time*. I watch BBCParliament a lot, and this is what it's like. This is why we went into Iraq, this is why we have ID cards. It is possible for a bunch of MPs, even a whole party, to be really, passionately opposed to something and argue for it ferociously, and still, at the end of the day, lose by a mile. The government has been defeated on, I think 6 occasions since 2005. It may interest you to know that Tom Watson has never, ever rebelled against the government before and apparently "felt sick" that he was doing it. That's how bad this system is.

This is why massive majorities are a bad idea. This is why so-called "strong government" is a bad idea. This is why the electoral system that delivers massive majorities to traditional blocs needs an overhaul.

So please, now that you've seen how ******-up this is, don't turn away in disgust. Do something about it.

@kasino72

John Redwood didn't vote either. The Tories basically were whipped to abstain - only 9 voted out of 193 in the party (5 against, 4 in favour). This was a bit of a surprise - I thought they were going to turn out in support of the government.

5. social networking has got the potential to change politics as we know it. speaking as a low-30's guy who's slightly politically aware.....i would say i've got 200 friends on facebook who probaby wont vote. i'm sure many others are in the same boat. a few well placed, factual comments could see a % of them thinking "really? woah, what can i do?"

i dont even get me started on the absolute power potentially wielded by famous twitterers.

4. (I'm Gary btw. I really need to sort out my nickname on here)

Tim, I think you're right about the bubble thing. Same principle is how extremist parties end up with seats in councils, parliament etc.

3. For me this whole affair has highlighted that some of us Digital Natives (I speak for myself) live in a bubble, and assume that the big issues facing our country are taken care of by others more knowledgeable in politics and economics. I had never watched the Parliament Channel before either, but if I was a teacher or a nurse you can bet I would have done. My point, if there is one, is that I agree with Gary that it is "business as usual" we just don't usually notice.

2. I don't know if it's even parties as much as individual MPs. John Redwood (Con) and Tom Watson (Lab) were particularly strong opponents. My local MP (lib dem), on the other hand, didn't vote.

1. This stuff is only going to change if people start voting for parties outside the 'big 2' (or indeed 3). Choose your vote carefully this year, folks.