I don’t want to be excessively partisan, but for the second time this weekend at conference, I’m getting a really good feeling about the Liberal Democrats.

The first was when we heard that a senior, experienced MEP thought our party was the best way forward.

But the second has been our response to the Digital Economy Bill and a huge online campaign from internet activists within the party and of no party.

Yes, it’s true that our team in the Lords invited the anger of the online activist fraternity. A lot of resentment has been brewing about the Digital Economy Bill as a whole, and when even the Liberal Democrats seemed to be untrustworthy and in favour of censorship, that anger spilled over and was directed at us.

I live in a lot of online communities as I suspect many of you who read this do. And it turns out for a lot of those communities, I’m “the Liberal Democrat” people know. So I got those emails and tweets of concern. So it is my responsibility to make sure I take steps both to change the direction of our party to be more in tune with real online people, and then to let those real online people know what we are doing.

It turns out that Lords amendment, though poorly implemented, and scary in isolation, was actually well intentioned. It takes the censorship powers away from an individual minister, currently Lord Mandelson, and hands it to courts and due process. Really, though, we don’t want censorship at all.

But what makes me really proud of the party is how so many of our internal party democracy systems have worked so well to address the issue once it was raised.

Bridget Fox, one of our party’s more impressive prospective MPs, was alerted to the problems by angered Islington constituents. She leapt into action and rousted 25 fellow PPCs into expressing the concerns and anger to the party’s parliamentarians.

The parliamentarians responded – and a debate began.

Danny Alexander MP (Vice Chair, Federal Policy Committee) makes significant commitments, saying the party will try to further change the Digital Economy Bill in the Commons and to draw up new policies after the election.

Bridget wrote an excellent emergency motion which found favour with internet activist and wavering party supporter Cory Doctorow and submitted it to conference. Lib Dem conferences are carefully designed to let real party members discuss issues. And because we understand sometimes things come up at short notice and don’t fit into long timetables we reserve some slots for emergency motions.

And then party members working together at conference selected Bridget’s amendment for debate, and that’s what led to this morning’s debate. You can find a written summary of that here by our own Iain Roberts and a full audio recording of the debate here.

And then party members debated the motion and voted overwhelmingly in favour.

In what other major party would that be possible? Which other party still has conference policy debates? Which other parties have leadership teams prepared to enter into debate, and not hunker down with a bunker mentality and try and defend the indefensible against all comers?

The motion we have passed is excellent, and sets in train a new IT policy working group and more detailed work on intellectual property law. Result!

We must not however rest on our laurels. There is more work to do to rebuild our reputation in the eyes of many digital activists. Some people are still contacting me with links to the original stories, weeks after the picture began to change and the party began to respond. So those of us who live online lives need to go back to our online communities and spread the good news. We need to make sure that the working groups, once established, take the right positions on digital freedoms. And we need to keep up the pressure on our parliamentary parties to do the right thing when they have the opportunity to improve the Digital Economy Bill.

Exciting news live from the LDV Broom Cupboard in Birmingham’s ICC.

News reaches us that Conservative MEP Edward McMillan-Scott has defected to the Liberal Democrats and will be joining us here at party conference.

The MEP said today: “I have been around the higher circles of the Conservative party for long enough to fear that on Europe Cameron says one thing in opposition and will do another in government.

“I have long fought against totalitarianism and the extremism and religious persecution it brings. It was wrong of Cameron to associate with MEPs who have extremist pasts in his new European alliance.”

I guess Liberal Democrats will be partying like it’s 1999 2000.

Update: here’s the full text of Edward’s resignation letter to David Cameron …

Dear David,

I am resigning today from my appeal against expulsion from the Conservative Party and from the Party itself to join the Liberal Democrats for three reasons:

1 I have been around the higher circles of the Party long enough, most recently serving on both the Euro-election and General Election strategy committees at CCHQ, to know that Euro-scepticism is in the hearts of most Conservatives. Your decision to split from the mainstream EPP and create the new ECR group has been universally condemned, even by right-wing commentators such as The Economist as a “shoddy, shaming alliance” . You say you will not ‘bang on about Europe’ and your spokesman make warm noises. But I fear that on Europe you say one thing in opposition and will do another in government.

2 You continue to refuse to accept that Michal Kaminski, who now leads the ECR and against whom I stood and won re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament last July, has had ‘anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist links’. You say that you are against extremism at home , yet you propitiate it abroad.

3 My family, friends and those who work with me will all confirm that I have sought in good faith an amicable resolution of my dispute at all levels in the Party. I have written to you on several occasions without a reply and have pursued the appeal process to which you submitted me in the diminishing expectation of fairness. I have stated my case modestly in the media. Last weekend your lawyers made clear that the appeal would continue to be rigged by you, despite your public pretensions to decency and fairness. As my friend Henry Porter put it in the Observer, your response has been ‘thuggish and panicky’ . You say one thing in public and do another in private.

My reasons for joining the Liberal Democrats are that in Nick Clegg they have a leader whom I like, admire and respect. They are internationalists, not nationalists. They are committed to politics based the values of fairness and change, but you are committed to power for its own sake.

Yours sincerely,

Edward McMillan-Scott MEP
Vice President of the European Parliament
Responsible for Democracy and Human Rights