Note: This entry has also been cross-posted over at The Multipack Blog - you can get involved with the group and find out more about us there.

It's been a year since we started our little midweek group over in Leamington, so it seemed like a good idea to have a bit of a birthday party!

If you didn't already know, The Multipack meets twice a month - every second Saturday in Birmingham and the last Tuesday of the month in Leamington (an iCal feed is available). Our little group in Leamington started a year ago so, on the anniversary of our first meet-up, we celebrated with cake:

Our cake, adorned with an iced version of Paul Robert Lloyd's logo masterpiece, went down very well. So much so that we're attributing our best ever turn out to its presence. Many new faces, including some who'd previously not been able to find us, but who had a cake to look out for this time!

Sadly, whilst the cake worked in giving some people a beacon to find us, we can't bring cake every month, so if you've got any suggestions on how to help people find us, we'd love to hear them.

Staying with the same format

The reason we formed our group in Leamington was to give those who couldn't make the Saturday meet-ups a choice of when to attend. It's worked really well, and whilst we've had the odd month where only a handful of people have turned up, there's usually always a good, friendly crowd at our Tuesday night events.

Over the past 12 months, we've been joined by designers, developers, project managers, social media luminaries, other halves and even the occasional prospective parliamentary candidate, and it's been nicer still when some of our newfound geeks have hooked up with the larger group in Birmingham on the second saturday meet-ups.

We think it's worked, so we're going to stick with it - we'll continue meeting from 7:30pm on the last Tuesday of the month at the White Horse in Leamington Spa, where you can find good ale, good food and a good atmosphere. If you work in or around the Leamington Spa area and fancy joining us, we'd love you to join us!

Dear Chris,

Firstly, congratulations on your election to Parliament as the MP for Warwick and Leamington.

I'm guessing your first few days there must be a lot like your first few days at secondary school - learning the new systems and protocols, everything being exciting, disconcerting and humbling in equal measures.

But I'm guessing it's also like going to a school where all the teachers are having a bit of a silent protest. Whilst I'm sure it would have been nice to have hit the ground running and started doing some real, political work, I'm guessing we've dealt ourselves a representative government. It's just a shame that, under the current system, it can't seem to do anything with itself.

I don't know which way the alliance will go - whether the Liberal Democrats will side with your party, or whether they'll choose to become part of a 'progressive alliance' with the Labour party, the independents and the other left-of-centre MPs - and I'm guessing that whilst you've probably been sounded out on it, you know little more than us. 

I also don't know how long an alliance will last, whether it will be long enough to truly pass any electoral or political reform, or whether it will gain widespread support. The last thing I want to see is MPs voting in their party's interests over their constituency's interests, however, especially on matters as important as representation.

It's for these reasons that I'm getting in early, before the campaigns for everyone to contact their MP begins, to ask you to support electoral reform. We've got a real chance to change our voting system to a new one, picked from a selection of those which are successfully used in other parts of the world, in Europe, and even here in the UK. It was a proportional voting system which saw Boris Johnson elected as the Mayor of London, and one which saw the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elected fairly, and represented proportionally by their electorate.

Having looked into systems such as Single Transferrable Vote and the Additional Member System (also known as MMP in New Zealand, where it's used for parliamentary elections), I can't help but think something like this, with a fixed-term parliament, where a prime minister is decided by the party who has the greatest number of seats, would work wonders for this country. 

I think the majority of the country would like to see changes to the constitution which make outcomes like this the norm, in which hung parliaments aren't a problem, but an opportunity to shape policy and law based on the wishes of the country. I expect what we'll likely see is an enhanced Alternative Vote (or AV+) system at first, before a full transition to a full proportional representation system. 

It's about time that we saw all of our elected MPs working together, not simply blocking electoral reform because it goes against the wishes of the party. A first hand demonstration that coalition governments can work in the UK, just as they work in other countries around the world. Think about it: under these systems, David Cameron would be Prime Minister, sitting in number 10 by now, leading a democratic government which represented the wishes of the electorate. Sadly, it's not the case, and we're deadlocked in a process where parties are now battling it out to form alliances and gain a majority in the Commons. 

First Past The Post is a broken system, which only allows for massive disparity between representation and the popular vote. I believe it's time for a change.

When we spoke on the phone, prior to the election, you mentioned that if enough of your constituents were concerned about a particular topic, that you would always try to put your constituents' wishes first - even going so far as to go against the party whip.

I can't speak for the entirety of Warwick and Leamington, but I'm sure all of us would like to see a balanced parliament, full of politicians that actually represent our wishes. With that in mind, when the time comes for parliament to vote on electoral reform, please don't waste your vote by not using it, but actually vote in favour of reform.

 
Sincerely,
Anthony Williams

Despite it really only being a two-horse race for me (see Why I won't be voting for James Plaskitt), Warwick and Leamington is really shaping up to be quite the battleground constituency. We've had door knockers for Labour and the Conservatives, I've had email conversations with James Plaskitt and Alan Beddow, and I spoke to Chris White on the phone this evening for a brief chat.

For the Liberal Democrats

Alan Beddow, who has some geek credentials as an IT Project Manager, got in touch on Monday. His email mentioned the Digital Economy Bill specifically, and it was interesting to hear what he had to say on the matter - specifically that Liberal Democrat policy will be to oppose it:

I have also been concerned about the Digital Economy bill and was one of the signatories to an emergency motion at our recent spring conference to debate this issue and we were able to get our policy amended. This was good news as one or two of our Lords and MPs had failed to spot the dangers, and those of us in the IT industry were able to put our case. I am happy to say that after this our party line has been to oppose this bill in its current form.

Alan was also keen to stress what they're planning on doing with regards to cutting waste using IT:

I have taken an active role in this group hosting an event at our party conference last year looking at how we can use IT to deliver better public services at a lower cost to the tax payer. Government IT Projects have had some bad press in recent years and having been involved in some I have a shrewd idea where the issue lies, and its not with the industry.

Having created websites for large companies, bodies in higher education and been involved in the quoting and procurement processes for some government websites in the past, I understand how IT projects can quickly get out of hand, with scope- and feature-creep causing problems when there's not a level head and strong project manager in charge. Even then, they can still spiral out of control.

If the Liberal Democrats get into power - either with a majority or in a coalition government - it will be interesting to see whether or not they can deliver on this - as a geek with the web at my heart, I certainly think it's the right direction to head in.

For the Conservatives

Chris White, a school governor who works in public relations, has no specific geek credentials as far as I can tell, but he does use a Mac, which is no bad thing - but certainly not a solid reason to vote for him. Chris' reply to my email offered nothing in the way of answers to any of my questions, only asking for a telephone number.

I obliged, and shortly after returning from my karate class, he called. For just over five minutes, we discussed listening to constituents, and Chris told me that if people take the time to call and get involved with an issue, then he would certainly make sure that he used his vote in parliament, going so far as to say that if enough of his constituents were supportive of or opposed to a particular topic, he'd suppot them, even if it went against the party line.

What now?

Both Chris and Alan were keen not to dismiss James or the Labour Party, and both spoke about what they would do, rather than attacking policies or practices of the other parties. I didn't get the chance to push Chris on his party's tactics of using very negative billboard advertising in the area - the smiling Gordon Brown posters - but then the Labour party are just as guilty of snide, useless advertising - "building a foundation vs. wearing it" springs to mind.

I'm going to be mulling it over right up until next Wednesday evening when I'm going to make my decision, but as the image above suggests, I think the Liberal Democrats are just edging out in front at the moment.

On the last Tuesday of every month (excepting December) from 7:30pm, we run a little social in Leamington for anyone with an interest in anything web-related. Run under the Multipack banner, it was something we thought up last year as a way to promote interest in the larger Multipack meet-ups which take place in Birmingham.

Last night was April's social, and my thanks go to Richard Cunningham (@rythie), David Wilkinson (@dopiaza) and Daniel Newns (@danielnewns), who are fast becoming our band of regulars for the group, for turning up and taking part.

We discussed next week's general election and our frustrations with politics, politicians and the electoral system; buying big-ticket items on the web and the technical, social, economic and psychological barriers in place; iPhone OS 4.0, the forthcoming 4th generation iPhone, Android devices and the differences between them; and the gap in the market for social networking tools aimed at businesses.

So if jovial conversation that doesn't necessarily involve talking about computers coupled with a few beers and a place to meet some local digitally-inclined folk sounds like something you'd be interested in, why not keep the evening of May 25th free in your diary and pop along to the next one?

This election has caused me to think longer and harder about who I will cast my vote for than any other. Prior to the campaign getting in to full swing, my thoughts were restricted to a choice between the Labour and Conservative parties, with my thoughts on voting for the Liberal Democrats being that it would be a wasted vote (and look how wrong I was there).

I've been bored of our current caretaker PM for a long time, and I never liked the idea that there's someone running the country who I didn't actually vote for - and yes, before you comment, I know that I elected the party, not the prime minister - but my only perceived alternative always bothered me. I'm not really old enough to have experienced, first hand, the impact the last Conservative government had on our country, but my dad has enough vitriolic rhetoric on the subject to go round.

I want to try and make an informed decision, so given my recent interaction with him, I thought I'd scrutinise the MP that's done the job since 1997.

On the Digital Economy Act

James Plaskitt, our incumbent representative in the House of Commons, responded to my earlier email (see If you have a vote, make sure you use it!) asking for clarification on his voting practices that led to the passing of the Digital Economy Act:

I am keenly aware of the strength of feeling on this matter, and the campaign that the Open Rights Group has organised is to be commended. The House of Commons spent around 8 hours over two nights debating the Bill. This follows more than three months of scrutiny in the Lords. I watched the whole debate. I did not support the bill.

I'm not entirely confident in the ability of a body of unelected individuals, many of whom are largely unaffected by the bill, to effectively filter what got to the Commons. Perhaps that's just me, but my opinion is that the Lords have nothing to fear, as they aren't voted into or out of power.

As for debate in the commons, 8 hours was nowhere near enough.

What really bothers me is the weasely way in which politicians use phrases, such as James' last one of that particular paragraph. "I did not support the bill." But he didn't vote against it either.

I didn't vote against the Bill because that would have killed it off completely, which I don't agree with. There are important issues raised in the Bill, which need an adequate debate. So voting against the Bill would not allow these issues to be raised, either now or in the next Parliament.

I hope you don't think I ducked out of this vote - I was up until midnight on both nights of the debate! I decided I couldn't support the Bill (the 'main vote' is to decide whether it should proceed), so I voted against my party whip. But I was concerned that if the Bill had been defeated completely, then we would miss out on a chance to debate these issues.

This is an area where I have little knowledge in the process of debate of Bills and Acts, but surely it's better to debate laws before rather than after they've been passed? And, as I've stated before, I couldn't care less whether my MP votes with his party, it's about whether he's representing his constituents' wishes.

In the case of the Digital Economy Act, I feel let down. My MP didn't represent me at that vote, and by abstaining, he wasted my vote.

On the Iraq War

There are tons of great tools on the web that allow you to see what your MP is up to. Gone are the days when the public record was difficult to access, decipher or understand, and I suspect many traditional MPs are quite uncomfortable about having their voting record easily accessible to the public.

James doesn't like these tools either. From an email James sent to me on April 8th:

I would respectfully recommend that you do not rely on such websites. In my experience they are notoriously unreliable at presenting an accurate voting record. Their methodology tends to take an average of YES versus NO votes on any particular issue to produce a conclusion like "Voted Moderately in Favour Of..". This gives no consideration whatsoever to the content of the clauses. Theyworkforyou still says that I voted in favour of the Iraq war. I did not.

Now, in fairness to James, he didn't vote in favour of the war. He wasn't present for the vote on the 'weapons of mass destruction' fiasco. He voted in favour of requiring a second UN security council resolution, voted that the case for war was unproven, and that the case for war was not established. He did, however, also vote in support of the government.

So, technically, James did not vote in favour of the Iraq war, but in what looks like it could be a pattern here, he wasn't present for the vote on the declaration of war. He didn't vote against it either.

Sound familiar?

On other issues

So in the two cases above, I would posit that by not voting, James actually allowed his constituents' wishes to go unvoiced in parliament.

Saddam Hussein was a really, really bad person but, whilst I can't speak for the whole of Warwick and Leamington, I expect the majority of the conurbation was opposed to the war. And, likewise, I think if enough of my neighbours actually knew what the Digital Economy Act entitled the government and media corporations to do to them, I think they'd be opposed to that too.

James Harrison has created an excellent website called Politics Posters, which encourages local candidates to come and talk to you based on the voting history of the constituency's last MP. For instance, if you live in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, you can download James Plaskitt's voting history as a poster.

Based on this, James voted:

• Moderately against a transparent Parliament
• Very strongly for introducing ID cards
• Very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals
• Strongly for introducing student top-up fees
• Very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws
• Moderately for the Iraq war
• Very strongly for replacing Trident
• Moderately against laws to stop climate change

Oh dear indeed.

In conclusion

I don't know what the other prospective parliamentary candidates would do differently, but I do know what James has done in the past. I suspect digging into each of the items above on the Public Whip website would reveal that he either did vote as suggested or abstained. I'd like my MP to do things differently, so I'll be voting for someone other than James Plaskitt on May 6th.

If you live in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, I'd urge you to do the same.

The right to vote is important, and if you have a vote, you should use it - it's no good complaining about the state of the UK if you didn't bother to try and shape its future. The wife and I will be casting our votes fairly early on May 6th - if it's a nice morning, we'll probably walk to the polling station, which is a 5 minute walk from our house - and I'd urge you all to do the same.

The recent passing of the Digital Economy Act has really annoyed me in this regard. Many of us used our vote at the last general election to put MPs in power that would make sure our voice was heard, but 410 406 MPs - four hundred and ten six - didn't bother using their vote, and didn't bother making the voices of thousands of concerned consitutents heard.

My local MP at the time, James Plaskitt, with whom I had a lengthy email discussion regarding the act, was one of these didn't use his vote. Many of these politicians will spin the fact that they did not vote into a claim that they did not support the bill, but whilst technically not voting against the bill can be classed as not supporting it, in this particular case I disagree.

Because my MP did not vote against the bill, I feel that my voice wasn't heard. So I've emailed him:

Hi James,

I wasn't sure if your parliament.uk email address would still be working, so I've emailed you at jamesplaskitt.com instead.

I've been reading through a lot of communications with the local parliamentary candidates, and I'm still - as yet - undecided as to who I'll be casting my vote for.

Everyone always talks about how important it is for us to use our vote - that if we want to make sure our voice is heard, that we need to use it. I'd say this is one of the most important things about democracy - actually using your vote and ensuring your opinion is counted.

Would you agree?

This is why the past few weeks have disturbed me a little - I've just been reading back through a few emails between us, regarding the Digital Economy Act, and one thing sticks out at me. Despite my email and our conversation, you didn't use your vote in the case of the Digital Economy Act. Not supporting the act and not voting against it are two entirely different things, yet many incumbent MPs have tried to suggest that they are one and the same.

I don't understand the intricacies of party politics - I'm guessing that by not voting, you wouldn't get in trouble with the party; by voting against the bill, perhaps you'd have potentially got into some trouble. Personally, I don't care about party politics or whether my MP gets in trouble with his party for actually acting for his constituents - I'd like an MP who listens to his local people - particularly those who take the time to get in touch - and acts upon their concerns.

One of your door knockers came round to see us last Thursday - and I mentioned that the Digital Economy Act is a point of great concern to me. I want to know what you and the Labour party are going to do about it. It's broken, and it desperately needs repealing and sorting out properly. As far as I can tell, the only party who have publicly pledged to do anything about that is the Liberal Democrats.

I'd love to get your thoughts on why you didn't use your voice... MY voice in parliament.

He's busy on the 27th of April, as are the other parliamentary candidates, so they can't join us at our Multipack event. But I'll let you know what he says if and when he responds.

Correction

I incorrectly suggested that 410 MPs didn't bother voting. It's actually 406, as the boundary changes which have taken place now weren't in place at the time of the Digital Economy Bill vote. It's still an appallingly high number.

Update: An edited version of this post is available over at The Multipack's Blog, where you should get involved and leave your comments.

Around this time last year, I heard about an event called Geek in the Park, through Jon Hicks' blog. Given that it was being held in Leamington Spa, a few minutes walk from my door, I figured that it'd be silly not to go along - especially given that it was a free event.

From that point on, I've been going to the regular monthly Multipack Socials in Birmingham, and on the second Saturday of every month - with an alternating schedule that flips between social meet-up and seminar-style events - we meet up, socialise with our peers, have a drink or two and talk about all things web, tech and general geekiness.

A lot of us understand, however, that it's not always possible to give up a Saturday afternoon every month in order to travel up to Birmingham. Weekends are premium time, to spend with your families and where you deal with your other out-of-work, weekend commitments.

Weeknight Socials

It's often easier to meet up for a quick beer or two straight after work and so, with that in mind, we're going to meet up, regularly, on a weeknight to complement the larger Birmingham-based meet-ups. I know there's a burgeoning web design and development community bubbling under the surface in Warwick and Leamington so, with help from Si Jobling (@Si) and Tim Print (@timprint) - who hail from Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon respectively - we've started a local Warwickshire chapter of the group and will be holding socials in Leamington Spa, with the scope to expand throughout south Warwickshire on a rotating schedule.

Our first meet-up was held last night, on Tuesday, June 30th, at The White Horse in Leamington Spa and, as launch meet-ups go, it was relatively successful, with a number of new faces from the area joining us for a few beers to discuss local community groups and efforts, such as PHP West Midlands, WXWM and a number of others. The weather was fantastic, and our choice of The White Horse and their courtyard worked out really well, with a handful of us staying a little later to sample the excellent food.

Getting Involved

As part of our discussion on getting people to attend, we discussed the fact that it’s not always easy - especially for people who are on their own - to make the jump into attending an event such as this. Meeting up with a bunch of like-minded individuals you’ve never met before can often be difficult for first-timers - a valid point that Richard mentioned - which means it’s all the more important to talk to your friends, colleagues and local contacts who are interested in the web and encourage them to join in.

We’d like more Warwickshire-based geeks to meet up with us and, occasionally, join up with us at the larger Birmingham-based Multipack meetings. If you’re interested in coming along to our next one - the date of which is still to be decided - then please keep your eye on this website, follow @Multipack and @abitgone (me) on twitter, and join the discussions over at the Multipack Forums, where we’ll notify everyone about upcoming events.

The only thing we'll need next time is something to draw newcomers' attention to us!