There have been concerns over the pace and execution of the leadership election. In a bid to resolve this, The Executive has been in discussions with The Board. The Board have made proposals which the NEC have accepted...

Looking back on the last year, we've achieved some amazing things. We've turned a small web forum into a fully functioning political party. We've successfully contested a general election, and we've seen a swing of 0.3% in our favour, despite having an election budget that wouldn't cover a single poster site. Almost as importantly, we've steadily increased our membership numbers, and we've gained a lot of respect from both the media and our political rivals. We've resisted the temptation to shout a lot and wear eye-patches, and instead we've made sensible political arguments, even when this approach might gain us less publicity. We are well placed to put in a good performance in next year's elections, particularly in Scotland, where the proportional system will help us have a bigger impact.

Behind the scenes, we've built a strong structure, with an NEC, a board of governors, and a set of Regional Administrative Officers. We are respected enough to be working with Ofcom on the Digital Economy Act, and we have strong contacts with politicians from other parties who are opposed to parts of that Act, and who are persuaded that copyright, patent and libel reform are worth taking an interest in. Journalists regularly ask us for quotes, and often turn to us for explanations of the technical issues involved in file sharing.

Of course, it hasn't all been plain sailing, with some horrendous rows behind the scenes about the colour of our logo, and the comparatively simple concept of selling t-shirts becoming a task of herculean proportions for a number of boring and complex reasons. Considering that we started off as volunteers with no political experience, and sometimes quite disparate views of what a Pirate Party should be and do, I think we can all pat ourselves on the back and say that we've done a great job so far.

As a party, we need to focus now on becoming more professional, and on maintaining our profile in a non-election year, as well as building up to the regional elections. We need to put in time and effort, and to get better at managing our volunteer resources. We need to improve our media skills, and turn our post-election high profile into more media coverage.

When the party started out we needed someone who was prepared to do ...

The Pirate Party has a new membership structure. This is as part of our goal to move to Direct Debit memberships. For more information on the changes read on...

I’m standing as the Pirate Party’s candidate in the Liberton/Gilmerton by-election for Edinburgh council.

The by-election is happening because at the general election, Cllr Ian Murray was elected to parliament for Edinburgh South. The by-election to replace him will take place on Thursday 9th September.

Britain today is an information society; millions of people now have the internet intervowen into the fabric of their everyday lives. But our leaders are still living in the past. A symptom of this is the Digital Economy Act, where the politicians decided to try to cripple the internet and abolish our civil liberties in order to save the record companies’ obsolete business model.

In addition to digital rights issues, I will be campaigning for better public transport links and increased provision of affordable housing.

To learn more about my manifesto for the city council, or to get in touch with me, please visit my website.

So far, this guide has focussed on the provisions within the Digital Economy Act 2010 that deal with online infringement of copyright. This final part will briefly cover the rest of the Act and reiterate some key facts.

Perhaps you've been admiring our range of handsome t-shirts, hoodies and bags for some time, but you haven't yet got round to buying one?

Well, delay no longer! Shipping is free this weekend, 30th July to 1st August, on all items from our SpreadShirt store.

Tomorrow, the 30th July, is the deadline for submitting responses to OFCOM about their consultation on the Initial Obligations Code for the Digital Economy Act (DEA).

The draft Code that was sent out for consultation has several serious flaws, not least  of which is its failure to put in place an effective scheme to ensure the reliability and transparency of evidence-collection used in the process of issuing Copyright Infringement Reports.

If you haven't yet responded to consultation, please do! We strongly recommend that you take a couple of hours to draft and submit a response, even if only a brief one! Some resources that may be useful in preparing your response include:

• The consultation documents themselves on the OFCOM website.
• A discussion of some of the problems with the draft Code from the Open Rights Group.
• Our ongoing series of blog posts explaining what the DEA is and how it works.
• The official Pirate Party UK response that we're currently drafting.

We're still in the process of finalising our response, so even if you don't have time to write a response of your own, we'd still appreciate your help finishing drafting ours. Check out the forum thread to see how you can get involved.

Related to the DEA, supporters in the Nottingham area may be interested in attending "Digital Economy Act On Trial," a Nottingham Tuttle club event taking place at the Galleries of Justice Museum cafe in the evening of the same day, Friday 30th July. It sounds like a very interesting event, and should be a great opportunity to meet legal experts and talk to the about the DEA. For more information, visit the Nottingham Tuttle Club website.

One of the most controversial parts of the Digital Economy Act 2010 is Section 17, entitled "Power to make provisions about injunctions preventing access to locations on the Internet". Put simply, this could be used to establish a system that would allow anyone to have content or websites blocked by ISPs based on an accusation of copyright infringement.

At ORGCON this weekend we launched our new and improved general campaigning flyer. Thanks to the hard work of Andrew Tindall, the Member Communications Officer, we now have a fantastic design, including amazing and innovative features such as spelling, grammar, and a striking blue background.

This time, the design revolves around the idea that although the Pirate Party UK's manifesto is based around a small set of core principles, our ideals can be put into practice in many policy areas. In response to feedback we got from the first round of flyers earlier this year, we've printed these on a heavier-weight grade of card. We've also subsidised the cost of the flyers and improved the packaging, so getting hold of some high-quality Pirate publicity postcards has never been so easy.

In order to simplify the ordering process (and make things easier for the poor person who has to package them up and send them out, i.e. me) we're only offering one pack size this time around. Each pack of 450 flyers costs £5.50 including postage and packaging, and will be delivered within 7 working days.

Order yours today!

As the newly elected Board of Governors we wish to extend our appreciation and gratitude for the trust that has been placed with us by you the members. You will hopefully be aware that the constitution is very vague as to the function and operation of the Board. Accordingly there is a lot of behind the scenes work that we are now undertaking to address this before moving on to the rest of the constitution. We ask your patience if from the outside it appears as if we have gone quiet and aren’t doing anything. Quite the opposite, we are hard at work and aim to present our proposals for constitutional amendment to you the members as soon as we can, starting with defining how we as the board will function.

We will not lose sight that it is you the members that ultimately decide what constitutional amendments come into force, and this is not a one way process where we expect members to passively sit back and wait for our proposals. If you have ideas, concerns, or suggestions for constitutional amendments we encourage you to contact any Governor on the Board. We will consider your ideas and put them through the same rigorous process of debate as any of our own idea. Bear in mind however, that there may be a multitude of other proposals that delicately interact, so if you don’t hear back from us promptly don’t think that we are ignoring your proposal.

Finally we fully understand that in order to maintain the trust you have placed in us we need to make sure there are clear channels of communication, that we maintain a high profile and not 'drop off the face of the earth', and we behave with respect to both you the members and the office of Governor. With this in mind we hope to have a process for communicating our progress in place as soon as possible.