How is Parliament doing at catching up with the existence of YouTube?

We’ve covered before the campaign by Jo Swinson and others to change the antiquated Parliamentary rules which ban MPs (and in theory other people too) from placing footage from Parliament on YouTube.

Here’s the latest from Jo Swinson about the campaign (via an update sent to fans of the campaign on Facebook):

In my last update I announced that the House of Commons authorities are now allowing MPs to post clips of Parliament on YouTube, however they are still not allowing members of the public to share the clips on their own websites.

As you may have seen, the BBC has now launched its excellent Democracy Live website, which allows you to watch clips from the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Welsh Assembly and the European Parliament as well as the House of Commons and House of Lords. This is an excellent service and it’s worth taking a look: http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive

However, Westminster is the only Parliament which does not allow users to share those video clips on other websites!

I have tabled a Parliamentary motion calling for the rules to be changed so that you can put clips of Parliament on your blog or homepage, and this is where I need your help. I am asking you to write to your local MP asking them to sign Early Day Motion 211 and support this campaign. You can read the motion here:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=39751&SESSION=903

If you’re not sure who is your MP or how to contact them, www.writetothem.com is an excellent website which allows you to find out, and to email your MP directly.

We won’t get the rules changed without backing from lots of MPs, so get writing today!

Well done Jo for running this campaign and getting changes made – even if we’re not quite there yet with them all.