Apathy and ignorance from dying UK Parliament

The UK Parliament has just put in place legislation demonstrating clearly that its members largely do not understand the way that knowledge and culture is fostered.

While they still apparently support the rights of creators to receive legal protection for their work, they do not understand that this right – copyright, in other words – is not something that is best either defined or policed by corporations who market such work (aka ‘publishers’).

They also showed that themselves happy to take the easier path, ignoring the vast body of complaints they have received from constituents, rather than the harder path of conscientious scrutiny. Most MPs were absent from the debate, which itself was rushed through on the last day of business. I was shocked by the complacent ignorance of Sion Simons, the minister responsible for the Bill, and sad to see so few of his colleagues take an interest.

But there were exceptions – Tom Watson MP, John Redwood MP and Fiona Mactaggart MP prominent amongst them – who took the time and trouble to explain clearly (if only to those of their colleagues who were present) the flaws in the Bill and to highlight the foolishness of rushing it through. Let’s hope that the electorate returns a new Parliament that has more conscientiousness, more intelligence and a better understanding of the society that surrounds it.

Otherwise the UK is going to lose out.

Fiona Mactaggart MP sums it up