New plans to monitor everyone’s e-mails and internet access are being touted this evening.
Is this the beginning of the end of the concept of any right to privacy for the individual or the start of a new era of “thought police”?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745
So much for the FIB-dem dedication to democracy and civil liberties.
Atheist Chat 
I had a quick read, I’d heard on Twitter about this and I found this bit:
Just goes to show that the old adage is true, when in opposition, simply disagree with everything, when in power, don’t dismantle anything put in place by the last lot. Ok, when I said the “old adage” I think I may have made it up myself!
I see a few problems. The government isn’t all that technology savvy to be honest. GCHQ might be, but I doubt it. The criminals, on the other hand, are. I’m not a criminal, yet, but if I wanted secrecy I know what I’d be doing – strong encryption, TOR, wandering around the neighbourhood using other people’s WiFi etc.
The only people likely to be affected by this are the ordinary non-criminals, and what they have to hide won’t affect national security in any way shape or form.
Cheers, Norm.
I am guessing that the first thing the police will do is spot all the people with encryption ware on their systems 🙂
I know my mother and I used to see how many “key-words” we could work into conversations when the “blessed Margaret” was in power and GCHQ was trying to monitor all phone calls. It was amazing how many times you would notice the “click” on the phone line once you had mentioned a few choice things!
Wonder just what will be setting off the alarms this time.
Oh yes – it’s business as usual in the tory camp. Find the most unpopular bit of legislation you can, claim that labour tried to introduce it (at the height of the terror campaigns – remember plane bombers sticking explosives in their underpants and shoes, not to mention devious things like binary liquid bombs) and forget that they dropped it because it would infringe on civil liberties.
I think it has a lot more to do with Cameron losing his fix of phone/e-mail pinching from his pet Murdoch “vile bodies” and having been outed breaking into Miliband’s offices at the Houses of Parliament, is resorting to this as a last resort.
I would agree with you that GCHQ will be unable to cope with the inundation if they did follow everybody, but then again, I doubt they are going for any but the “known” terrorists – what they are really after are the “anti-capitalists” and the 99%, the labour party and the unionists.
Strange to think that while Burma might just become more democratic, Cameron is moving GB to the right of China!
I’m not so sure. As far as I can see there’s no evidence that Cameron was behind it – plus, it seems about two laptops per week go missing from the Palace of Westminster. Hope they use encryption!
Well I think it has a lot more to do with Cameron using the Houses of Parliament as his own personal “clubhouse” to show donors around than any idea of security in what should be one of the more “secure” places in the country.
It’s ridiculous that people can just make off with laptops and other equipment. What if there was a riot! (irony is not an icon I have some across yet!) Someone might get locked up for life, if a tweet can get you four years, and a packet of rice a jail term.
Is it really only Cameron’s incompetence that stops the Miliband break in being the suspicious act it was? They went to a lot of trouble to break into his particular office, including ignoring the rest of the office stuff that usually gets nabbed. Moreover, why do they target conveniently high profile Labour MP’s?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/03/18/ed-miliband-office-break-in-westminster-norman-shaw-police_n_1356157.html
I suppose, if you are worried (or have anything to hide) you could always use TOR – https://www.torproject.org/ – to hide your online activities.
Mind you, I’m concerned that all these terrorists are running around using their own PCs and internet connections, mobile’s etc to plan the downfall of our democratic country! 🙂
Cheers, Norm.
No need – Cameron and Clegg are setting up a new Star Chamber where they can lock you away in a secret trial where the defense won’t hear the evidence from the prosecution, just to keep us all “safe” from terrorists and peedos. (apologies for spelling, but it’s better than being bleeped!)
This is a charter for incompetent and corrupt spies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2012/apr/04/secret-justice-ken-clarke
Morning Susan,
with regard to being bleeped, this is our blog, we make the rules. The rules can be seen in the page that appears when you click on “about atheist chat” above. I see nothing about having to keep the language clean.
I can set the blog up to reject postings with certain words in them, but at present, I have not. The only thing that would prevent a posting is three or more links – but that’s adjustable too.
Cheers,
Norm.
PS. Re Cameron, as a Jock and having suffered at the hands of Maggie and her crew, there’s no way I’ll ever be tempted to agree with anything much they say or do. And I think the Liberals have shot themselves in the foot (or Labour did it for them) by going into a coalition with the current crop of thieving bastards! (Testing the profanity filter!)
You and me both. I find the current “nostalgia” for the Iron Lady completely gross – and the strange the way the pain of the 80’s has just been airbrushed out of current memory.
I try hard not to talk “politics” at school, because it’s not fair but sometimes it’s very depressing listening to all the anti-labour slogans when I know so many are so poor because of tory policies, while they are so rich. They really don’t know how the other half live. It really does feel that social mobility has been knocked back into the 19th century sometimes.
It’s amazing how peoples perception of the various political parties vary. I remember years ago, talking to a friends mother, who didn’t have the proverbial, “pot to pee in,” saying, “I always vote Conservative, as that’s what it means, conserving what you have and work for.” Her and her husband had little, to nothing, they rented their house and TV and ran a very old car and each year, were lucky to take a week’s holiday sixty miles from where they lived. Her sons are little better off, even today and yet, wouldn’t consider for one moment voting for any party other than Tory.
Fair enough. Nothing will ever make me vote tory. I may now have more, but my heart is still with those who have nothing, and found themselves underpaid for what they did, and always playing second fiddle to nepotism and intrigue. That;s the way politics is, sometimes. It’s about the big picture, and how you see yourself, not always a rational decision.