The Digital Economy Act 2010 is now law. Last week thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, watched the tragedy unfold on Twitter and via the live stream from Parliament (starts at 20:51:25). Many of those people were seeing the internal mechanisms of the British political system for the first time. Their reaction was almost universally one of abject horror.

I know there are many people in Sheffield who care passionately about the Internet. I have spoken to lots of local residents who wrote to their MPs opposing the Digital Economy Bill only to be ignored or fobbed off with form letters. The final insult came when the division bell rang and Sheffield’s so-called representatives were hearded by their party whips into the Aye lobby like sheep, deaf to the howls of protest from their constituents.

We can’t let that kind of slur go unchallenged. There is a General Election at hand, which means we have a chance to change our current party flunkies for representatives who are prepared to do just that: represent us.

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but if you feel let down by your MP, I encourage you to find one of their opponents and offer to help them get elected instead. There’s a list of Sheffield consituency candidates on the Sheffield Votes website.

Sheffield Central is the only marginal constituency in South Yorkshire. The Liberal Democrats are the only party with a realistic chance of winning the seat from Labour. Therefore I’ll be at Paul Scriven’s campaign office at 10:00 on Saturday morning to do what I can to get rid of Labour in Sheffield Central. If you’re reading this and you think the Digital Economy Act is a bad idea I urge you to join me.

Sign up here: http://www.pledgebank.com/DEActivateLabour