So they passed the Digital Economy Bill during “Wash Up” – by the way, has there ever been a more ridiculous yet apt name for a political process? – riding roughshod over democracy and ignoring the flaws in the bill that were repeatedly pointed out to them (I won’t repeat them here, but instead point you towards Steve Lawson’s excellent round up).
So where do we go from here?
We keep on fighting. This is being called the first “social media election”, so let’s turn our gaze to the election process and our future elected representatives.
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Register to vote
This is the most important. If you’re not registered you can’t vote.
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Research your constituency
Who is your current MP, How strong is their position? Are you in a marginal seat, who are the candidates, where do they stand? Were they implicated during the expenses scandal?
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Sign up with Democracy Club
Democracy club is a non-party-political group of volunteers that want to hold candidates to account and motivate the public to get involved with the political process. You’ll be emailed small tasks like describing local issues or photographing campaign leaflets. You’ll be helping to build a resource of accountability.
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Donate
Organisations such as the Open Rights Group and MySociety campaign on our behalf and build the tools we use to track what’s happening in the labyrinthian world of politics. Give them some money so they can continue their good work.
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Write to your MP
Ask them how they feel about one of the most important bills in the last decade being forced through Parliament in just a couple of days with little-to-no scrutiny. Ask them whether they turned up to the debate, if not, why not? Be polite.
After recent events it would be easy to give up on the political process, but this is exactly the time to get more involved. Let’s show them the power of the network.
Update: There’s lots of good conversation and formulating of plans under the #Debill tag on Twitter.
Finite resources
A very astute comment on a New Zealand Labour Party post about ACTA.