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 ...

It's tempting, with the election just round the corner, to score a few cheap political points at the expense of Labour and the conservatives over the 'Ashes to Ashes' poster scandal... so I will.

If you haven't been following the story, the Labour party took a photo of actor Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt from Ashes to Ashes, photoshopped in David Cameron's face and put it on a poster with a tagline about going back to the 80s. The Conservatives took Labour's image, and changed the words to something more positive, and put it on their own posters. The problem is that it appears neither of them bothered with the trivial matter of getting approval from the copyright holders.

If you've looked at both posters on line, that's 2 of your 3 strikes, courtesy of parties that are backing the Digital Economy Bill, while committing copyright infringement themselves. It's a clear cut case of 'do as we say, not as we do', and that ought to be a major scandal, but beyond the political points-scoring, there's a much bigger issue here.

Surely as TV licence payers, we ought to have some rights over that image? We know Labour and Conservative MPs pay their TV licences, because several of them claim it on expenses... shouldn't that mean they have some rights over the work produced with that money? Isn't the reason that Labour and the Conservatives didn't think they were doing anything wrong that they were doing something that's technically illegal, but not morally wrong?

The Pirate Party understands fair use, and understands the urgent need for copyright reform. The Pirate Party wants us all to have the right to use work paid for by our licence fees. Labour and the Conservatives have yet again proved that they don't understand the law, and can't be trusted to obey it, let alone reform it to be suitable for the 21st century.

It's time to vote Pirate.

The Digital Economy Bill has always been highly controversial. It threatens to take away the right to a fair trial, it threatens to kill off Wi-Fi hotspots, it threatens to introduce collective punishment and places ridiculous burdens on both ISPs and their customers. It is (if the rumours that amendment 120a came directly from the desk of Richard Mollet, Director of Public Affairs at the BPI are true) quite literally a law written by the record companies for the record companies.

Despite the public outcry, and the public protests organised for tomorrow, the government are planning to rush the bill through the House of Commons and into the lawbooks with no debate! Through a process known as 'wash up', the government can rush through new laws in in the final days before an election without a proper debate. This process is supposed to allow governments to make good on their manifesto commitments, but it is being misused to ram through a flawed, biased law that would fall apart under proper scrutiny.