Digital Economy Bill

I've tuned in to BBC Parliament on and off over the last two days to hear the debate on the Digital Economy Bill. I have to say I was surprised how few members were in the House on an issue of such importance. If many MPs didn't realise how important the issue was then that alone should tell us that the whole matter needed far more debate than the government chose to allow.

While the House appeared to contain at most around 40 MPs at various stages of the debate, and at times far fewer, according to Hansard, 236 of them eventually voted. My MP wasn't amongst them so it would appear that I wasted my time contacting him about my concerns over this issue.

Can we be sure that the nearly 200 MPs who weren't in the chamber throughout the debate were actually following this elsewhere? If they were sitting in an internet cafe somewhere perhaps it should have dawned on them that in a year's time they might actually have to join the ranks of those trying to look interested on the green benches in the Commons chamber in order to find out what was being said, or at the very least remain in the House for the entire evening. If they had the luxury of living near enough to spend the evening at home then I hope they won't have the misfortune to be one of those whose internet accounts are temporarily suspended at some time in the future. The legal costs of fighting such a suspension will be beyond the means of the vast majority of people.