Emily Thornberry

Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury

Hello Emily, sorry to have to bother you again.

I read with interest reports on the Digital Economy Bill which, it would appear, now contains Mandelson’s attempts to remove the presumption of innocence AND parliamentary review in any issue deemed to be important to big media companies.

Since I joined the Pirate Party the other week, I thought I’d forward you their questions to Mandelson in the hope you could ensure they’re asked should he decide to bother looking for the house’s opinion on the matter.

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/blog/2009/nov/20/questions-lord-mandelson/

I hope you’ll agree with me that it’s your job to represent your constituents rather than the large media companies who brought Mandelson such a lovely meal to help convince him to attempt betray our democratic institutions of justice and due process.

The Pirate Party in Sweeden won some seats at the last Euro Election. Have you heard what their member Rick Falkvinge said about the future of digital issues:

“On the one side, there is the public. Every human with
access to the Internet has received fingertip round-the
-clock access to all of humanity’s collective knowledge
and culture. This is a fantastic leap ahead for mankind
- much larger than when public libraries arrived 160
years ago, and comparable to how society changed with
the arrival of the printing press.

“On the other side, there are the current people in power,
who would like to harness this power to build a surveillance
machine – collecting information about regular Joes, and
actively preventing the free exchange of ideas – that would
make George Orwell look like a cheery, skipping optimist.
Many powerful institutions are pulling in this direction.”

Which side are you on? Which side do you think your constituents are on?

Thanks for listening,

Adam.