The Party is coming out of a fairly hectic period, we have a new treasurer, a new press officer, many new board members and we have been working hard to deal with the transitions as well as all the correspondence and ideas that have come in from members and non-members alike. So, for the last month or so much of our focus has been internal and it is about time we turned back to the work that actually gets our ideas out to people in the UK.

So, over the next few days we will be going over out what the campaigns team has and will be working on in the next few months.  If you have any suggestions or want to get involved in any way, let us know.

This post also talks about Local Organisation,  a Candidates Call, European Elections, another call for board candidates and more..

After many years of campaigning, Parliament is finally debating a new Defamation Bill. Defamation (covering libel and slander) is about protecting a person's reputation, and balancing that right against the general freedom of expression. Over the last few years English libel law has become infamous around the world for its chilling effect on free speech, ease of use to silence criticism (informal, political and academic) and its disproportionate costs.

The new Bill attempts to tackle some of these issues. But while it is a step in the right direction, it mainly codifies the existing law rather than significantly improving it. There are still some major problems with the current text and while it is being debated in the House of Commons we have a chance to try to fix it before it becomes law. To do this, we need you to write to your MP, highlighting the major problems. If nothing else, please ask them to read through the memorandum the Party submitted to the Public Bill Committee, the key points of which are outlined below.

As you may be already aware, today the Government published the long-awaited Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth.  As we had made clear in our submission to the review, copyright and patents should 'make not break markets', and the rights of innovators and artists must be balanced with those of the public to enjoy such work.

Nominations for the role of Campaigns Officer are now open, and will close at midnight on 21st May 2011.

This time a year ago we were celebrating the first ever Pirate candidates in a UK general election.  In May 2010, we stood candidates in nine Westminster constituencies, and received an average of 0.4% of the vote.

Although many of us were disappointed that the numbers weren't higher, it provided a good benchmark to judge our success in future elections. Over the last year, there've been quite a few of them!