UK Digital Economy Bill

I've mentioned before that I think the UK government seems to be going mad. The latest in this trend is the UK's Digital Economy Bill (which I found via Techdirt). Without going into too many specifics, the key thing which seems absolutely absurd is that the bill would allow the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, to change copyright law at will without parliamentary approval.

To be fair, I don't know anything about Lord Mandelson. He could be a sleazebag or he could be very honourable (probably less likely considering he is in politics - zing!). However, the point is that giving any one person or office that level of power just seems to beg for an abuse of power later down the line.

The bill itself has yet to be debated in Parliament and this could well get amended before the bill is passed. However, if this particular element isn't laughed out of town, I will be chalking this episode up as further evidence that the UK has gone stark bonking looneytunes.