You would be hard pressed to find a better example of how broken our current political system is than the passage of the digital economy bill through parliament. A vast sprawling bill made to order on behalf of the so-called creative industries in the face of opposition from pretty much everyone else, it has all the hallmarks of legislation carved up between Sir Humphrey and a minister with an ego of monstrous proportions (only Lord Mandelson would consider Henry VIII-style powers as something to aspire to in the 21st century).
One modern myth is that the existing "semi-reformed" House of Lords, post-1999, is a bastion of expert sobriety that stays above the party political fray with a view to curtailing the government's worst excesses. In reality, the government only fails to get its own way when the Lib Dem and Tory whips unite to thwart it. In the case of the digital economy bill, the lack of expertise in the Lords about how the internet works in practice was all too apparent. Rather than hear evidence from all sides in the debate in the way most democratic senates around the world do, the Lords' own self-importance lead them to fall back on their own inadequate experience instead. As a result they only succeeded in getting into even more of a muddle.
At least the Lords does actually scrutinise legislation though. In the Commons the government whips work on the basis that no legislation should be amended ever, even on matters the government is willing to concede in the Lords, lest backbenchers get any ideas above their station. As such, the public bill committees that are set up to scrutinise bills are for the most part a formality. When it comes to the wash-up, such control freakery takes on even more absurd proportions.
Liberal Democrat MPs have received criticism for not fighting enough of a trenchant battle in the Commons in an attempt to thwart Labour and the Conservatives' cosy conspiracy to force the digital economy bill through its second reading and it is fair to say that the Lib Dems' own record on the bill over the past few months is far from spotless. But to sit there in the Commons simply to make noises in all the right places would be an object in futility. Parliament doesn't need hairshirt politics.
The real lesson from this experience is that we need a more representative and responsive political system. Digital rights will always be one of those Cinderella issues while the voting system focuses politicians' attention solely on a handful of swing voters in a small number of marginal constituencies. And we desperately need a House of Lords that is accountable to the public, not torn between the conflicting and equally wrong-headed instincts of too many of its members to be both patrician and open for hire to the highest bidder.
Don't let anyone fool you that the problem is one bad law or some debilitating nonsense about all politicians being the same. The system stinks and only a vote for the Liberal Democrats in this election will help to do anything about it.
