Digital Economy Bill (Eleventh sitting)

Debate between Christian Matheson and Calum Kerr

Committee Debate: 11th sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 1st November 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

I rise briefly to support the new clause and to pay tribute to my good friend and fellow Select Committee member, the hon. Member for Selby and Ainsty, who has form on campaigning in this area. He is known as a music fan, and the new clause is the culmination of a long campaign on behalf of music fans everywhere.

Moreover, I do not believe that the hon. Gentleman will damage the credibility of Green Day, because he has a track record of supporting live music—this is certainly nothing like David Cameron suggesting that he was a Smiths fan and having Johnny Marr tweeting him to back off. While I am on the subject, I remind the Committee that I was at the last concert of The Smiths, which was in Brixton Academy, probably in December 1986 or ’87.

In those days, ticket touts were blokes in long macs shouting, “Any spare tickets?”, which was a problem, but manageable. The hon. Member for Selby and Ainsty has been outlining industrial-scale, mechanical touting, which is way beyond my experience of those days 20, 30 or even 40 years ago. The problem absolutely needs to be addressed and the new clause does so. I am pleased to support it and, if the Minister is planning to accept it in principle, I suggest that he could do worse than recognise the work of the hon. Gentleman, give him the credit for the new clause, along with my hon. Friends on the Front Bench, and the chance he so richly deserves to make a mark.

[Calum Kerr (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (SNP)]

I could not possibly be as glowing about the hon. Member for Selby and Ainsty as the hon. Member for City of Chester has been. There is a love-in across the Benches this morning.

I, too, rise briefly to support the new clause. To paraphrase a well-known quote by Eric Hoffer, the American moral philosopher, every good idea begins as a movement, becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket. That is what we have here. Online sales and fan-to-fan ticket sites are fantastic at enabling people to get access to the music events they want to go to, but because of the evolution of technology, software and bots, we now have a distorted market, about which we absolutely need to do something.

I want the hon. Member for Selby and Ainsty to be able to go to see his favourite band, Green Day—as he was mentioning them, it occurred to me that one of their songs, and the name of their 2004 album, seemed appropriate for a gentleman who might yet end up in the White House. I must also add that my hon. Friend the Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) suggests that MP4 tickets are very easy to get hold of—he is determined that they are stopped from selling below ticket value.

I commend the hon. Member for Selby and Ainsty on his new clause and I am happy to support it.

Digital Economy Bill (Tenth sitting)

Debate between Christian Matheson and Calum Kerr

Committee Debate: 10th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 27th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Calum Kerr]

Absolutely. I see we are on a bus theme, which must be because the hon. Member for Hyndburn has returned to his place.

We must consider the risks inherent in this shift. With its budget potentially squeezed in future, the BBC is the one faced with choosing a priority. The BBC will have to decide whether someone should get a free TV licence. Fundamentally, that is welfare policy. I hope the Government are listening and will reconsider. The new clause is well worded and I fully endorse it on behalf of the Scottish National party.

[Christian Matheson]

I support the new clause and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Heeley on an outstanding contribution among numerous outstanding contributions during the Committee’s considerations.

The hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk is absolutely right that the proposal is an outsourcing of responsibility, but there is more to it than that. The Government are not only putting a further financial squeeze on the BBC, but when, as may be inevitable, the allocation of TV licences to the over-75s has to be reviewed, they will apparently have a clean pair of hands. It will be, “Not us, guv—it was the BBC what did it”, when that may well have been the intention all along. It is, again, outsourcing of responsibility and an attempt to evade responsibility, put on the financial squeeze, take a step back and say, “It’s nothing to do with us. It’s that bad BBC. Because that bad BBC is so bad, we shall cut them even more to punish them for how they have treated pensioners.”

My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Paul Farrelly), who does not serve on this Committee, described the events of June and July 2015 when the so-called negotiation took place as a drive-by shooting when we were in the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Hon. Members have today talked about negotiations with a gun to the head; a drive-by shooting is an appropriate description of what happened.

The BBC board was taken by surprise by the motives of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, the right hon. Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne), and the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The Select Committee asked the chairwoman of the BBC Trust whether she and her fellow trust members had considered resigning in protest at what was happening; she declined to answer. I am sure that there were discussions.

Digital Economy Bill (Seventh sitting)

Debate between Christian Matheson and Calum Kerr

Committee Debate: 7th sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 25th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Calum Kerr (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (SNP)]

I am sure that the Minister will be glad to hear that I will not be quite as thorough, because everything has been covered already. He was looking somewhat exasperated. I do not know what he was googling; “How to make this Bill go quicker”, perhaps.

[Christian Matheson]

Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that one way to make the Bill go quicker would have been for the Minister not to have tabled so many Government amendments?

[Calum Kerr]

That is an excellent point. I think that the ambition is to make the amendment paper longer than the Bill. If the Bill is a Christmas tree, the baubles must be hollow, with a little note inside saying “IOU a lot more detail, or an apology.” It has made my first Bill Committee an interesting experience.

Of course we support clause 26 and the spirit behind it. It is important that copyright be protected. Our creative industries in these isles are a huge success story, and they should be fully supported. The hon. Member for Cardiff West gave a thorough and excellent overview of the issues; I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) was delighted to hear that he was on the Bill Committee, as the subject is close to his heart. I would hazard a guess that he has made more than £10.60 from his past efforts. Before I come to the substance of what the hon. Member for Selby and Ainsty said, I put on record my appreciation and admiration for his contribution last Friday. That day showed the worst and best of democracy in this place, and he was part of the best.

On the new clauses, I have been sitting here messaging my staff asking, “Why didn’t we add my name to these?”. We need to learn how things operate a bit better. We fully support the amendments. New clause 3 is an essential addition. As the hon. Member for Cardiff West said, I am sure that the Government will add something at some point, because that is a logical step to take. As has been outlined in some detail, there are millions of sites flagged to the search engines by the relevant bodies. It is not as though they have to go and find them themselves; it is the process by which the search engines do or do not take the sites down that needs to be brought into sharp focus. Clearly, there are efforts at a voluntary approach, but this is the perfect opportunity to put into legislation something that might drive the right outcome and behaviour without the need for follow-through. Past experience supports that idea. We must see some movement in that area.

We support new clause 33 on IPTV boxes. It is necessary to move with the times. This Christmas tree of a Bill has a lot of aspects to do with the broader digital economy, but people will continue to innovate and find new ways of delivering content, and IPTV is one example. Someone in this place recommended an IPTV box to me for my London flat because it is quite a cheap way of accessing content, but I did not follow that advice because I would not want to access any illegal content. These boxes come pre-loaded, and there should be no pretence about it: they are designed to give people a way of avoiding paying for content that they know they should pay for. There is no excuse for that. New clauses 33 and 3 are essential additions to the Bill, and we are delighted to support them both.

Digital Economy Bill (Eighth sitting)

Debate between Christian Matheson and Calum Kerr

Committee Debate: 8th sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 25th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Calum Kerr]

I thought so. At least when we eventually get there, we will not expect to win it, unlike others.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

Like in 1978?

Digital Economy Bill (Sixth sitting)

Debate between Christian Matheson and Calum Kerr

Committee Debate: 6th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 20th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Calum Kerr (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (SNP)]

I rise to support the amendments. It will not surprise the Committee to learn that I seek clarity about the impact on Scots law. It comes back to the same point: a lot of the issues that are being wrestled with in this place apply in a different legal jurisdiction. Perhaps the Minister could address that.

[Christian Matheson]

I should like to add to the comments made by hon. Friends. My concern is that if there are too many gaps and loopholes in the legislation, that may, perversely, put greater pressures on the enforcement authorities, because they will have to seek out so many different mouse-holes down which some of the content providers may run and disappear. I am slightly concerned and ask the Minister to consider the danger of an unintended consequence, because if it is not possible to stamp out content immediately, vital resources and focus will be diverted.

--- Later in debate ---

[Calum Kerr]

I doubt it too, but never mind. It is better to be an optimist, especially on the Opposition Benches.

[Christian Matheson]

You’ve got me behind you.

[Calum Kerr]

No comment. Had we made more progress, amendment 62 might not have been necessary, but as I feared, we have not. I am confident that we all agree on the merit of the intent of this part of the Bill. We all want to protect young children from accessing inappropriate pornographic material. I do not want any of my children doing so, and I know how much they use electronic devices. My youngest, Robert, is only seven, and he is phenomenally tech savvy. It would not be that difficult in this world to stray, even with some of the blocking systems that are in place.

A lot of the problems that we have here are to do with international sites. I am dismayed at the Government’s unwillingness to move and not even so much as listen to Opposition Members, the regulator or charities, who all insist that ISP blocking is the kind of extra measure that we should put in place. Given that broader context and the Minister’s conviction, which I believe is sincere, that he has a package of measures that will work, in light of our concerns and those of many others, a review should be put in place. I know that in the past the answer to anything involving a review has been, “That’s what the Select Committee process is for; they will have a review,” but we should not leave something as important as protecting young children to a Select Committee. The Government should take responsibility rather than abdicate it to a Select Committee. The Government should put ISP blocking in the Bill, show that they treat the issue seriously and have a review to ensure that we get the outcome that we all want: a safer environment for our children on the internet.

Digital Economy Bill (Fourth sitting)

Debate between Christian Matheson and Calum Kerr

Committee Debate: 4th sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 18th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Christian Matheson]

It is a great pleasure to see you in the chair this morning, Mr Streeter. May I also say what a pleasure it is to see the Minister for Digital and Culture. I think it is the first time we have served together. He is of course a Cheshire man like me, and we are all very proud of him in Cheshire. Indeed, when I met headmaster Chris Ramsay of King’s school recently, he asked me to urge the right hon. Gentleman to come back and visit his alma mater. I encourage him to do so, though he might not want to do any political campaigning while he is there.

I rise in support of amendment 82 in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Heeley. It is absolutely right that what is becoming a piece of essential national infrastructure, and one which is developing all the time, should come under the purview of Parliament. My view on the roll-out of broadband, which is not shared by all hon. Members, is that BT has done a very good job of getting a decent proportion of the country up to a decent standard fairly quickly, using existing infrastructure. However, as we have seen, the continued reliance on copper local links can hold back the development of that infrastructure. There has been very little scrutiny of that infrastructure development in Parliament. It is good to see my fellow members of the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, the hon. Members for Mid Worcestershire and for Selby and Ainsty, in this Committee. Our Select Committee’s report was one of the few areas where Parliament has been able to scrutinise the development of broadband, and scrutinise we did, strictly and fairly, as I am sure the hon. Gentlemen would agree.

[Calum Kerr]

I feel somewhat left out because the hon. Gentleman does not know where I went to school, but never mind. He is making an excellent speech on this whole area of BT and its contract. I agree with him. It is very easy to kick BT, but it is delivering on its contract and what it has been asked to do. Does he agree with me, though, that as we set a 10 megabits objective, it is important also to consider the future, because if BT continues to sweat copper assets we are going to come unstuck at some point. Simply going for now and not thinking about tomorrow is too short-sighted and it is catching up with us already.