Digital Economy bill debate: quote of the week

Via the wonderful Lilian Edwards, the quote of the week in the House of Lords debate on the government's Digital Economy bill came from Lord Lucas:

"We have to be careful about setting out to criminalise, as he says, a large proportion of our population, particularly when it involves putting them not in the hands of the criminal law with all the safeguards, care and rationality that involves, but in the hands of firms of solicitors who are out to make a

12 Jan 2010 : Column 423

buck from the process. None of these people are nice to deal with."