Tuesday 3 April 2012

I thought it was a joke

I woke up on Sunday, ready for the usual April 1st stories in the newspapers. I checked out the Telegraph and thought I spotted an early one...

Internet activity 'to be monitored' under new laws

Ministers are preparing a major expansion of the Government's powers to monitor the email exchanges and website visits of every person in the UK, it was reported today

Under legislation expected in next month's Queen's Speech, internet companies will be instructed to install hardware enabling GCHQ – the Government's electronic "listening" agency – to examine "on demand" any phone call made, text message and email sent, and website accessed in "real time".


Monday morning arrives and the story is still there. This piece wasn't the conjured up by the fertile imagination of a bored journalist. The government want the unrestrained power to monitor everything we write and say online.

The justification is, of course, terrorism. This is how an anonymous government spokesperson explained it:

"It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public. We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes."

At this stage in the post, I am tempted to go through a long discussion about why this proposal is a grave threat to our ancient liberties. However, I wonder whether it is worth the effort. Do we really need to explain why the government should not have unrestricted access to our phone calls and email? Either we, as a people, value our freedoms and shout out a collective deafening NO. Or we roll over and meekly accept the consequences of this offensive initiative.

There are days when I wake up and fear for the future of this country. Today was one of those days.

14 comments:

Stevie b. said...

Well it's a conundrum. It's nice to have liberty but, especially in this day and age, does liberty now mean what we've always thought it meant? And please don't give me "indivisible", especially in the compressed world in which we find ourselves. I'm innocent, so why should I be more than maybe a teeny weeny tad bothered - for now anyway.....

Anonymous said...

When it's wrong it's wrong !
This proposal is plain and simple wrong !
No wonder there was a massive protest vote the other day,
Oops have I said too much ?

The Filthy Engineer said...

Sign the petition against.

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32400

Dave said...

You don't get it Stevie B. Her Majesty's government of EU sock puppets assumes everyone who makes a phone call or writes an e-mail or comments on a blog or a forum is guilty of something they have deemed to be nefarious.
This definition can be whatever the sock puppets or more likely their unaccountable EU puppeteers decide on a whim.
(British man arrested on an EU arrest warrant for the murder of a Portugese man who that very day was playing wheelchair basket ball! Visit Anna Raccoon for the full sp)

This is how continental justice works, it is not how British justice works but then again there is no Britain just a nation of compliant consenting sheep who are happy to believe that as long as they pay they will be left alone.

That is the problem with this 'proposal'.

Michael Fowke said...

I'm sure none of us will care when we're dead ...

Electro-Kevin said...

I was sure that internet traffic was being monitored already anyway.

I bet it is.

Electro-Kevin said...

Bomb

Electro-Kevin said...

Twenty five 'spooks' have just seen your site flag up, Alice.

RenterGirl said...

Imagine trying to open and read every letter sent in 1956. Even with a filter for words like 'bomb.' It's foolish to even try. And then monitor and investigate the people who have said bomb. And then realising they are sending a rescipe for a cherry meringue bomb, but have mispelled it.

jams o donnell said...

Hopefully it will be kicked into touch. It is a stupid proposal

davidb said...

Yes but think of the commercial potential of something like this. British firms could be world leaders in this kind of thing and sell it to all our usual customers. And how much more peaceful will the world be when places where we sell weapons for purely defensive purposes, and not to use against their own citizens, will be able to nip unrest in the bud before news of it is retweeted or mirrored.

What the hell is wrong with our country? Arent you glad the LibDems are in there keeping crazy illiberal ideas in their cage?

We need new parties here. And we need a written constitution a bill of rights and fair votes.

Budgie said...

Well, obviously the LimpDims didn't keep this one in its cage. So no, I'm not glad. You just sound like a LimpDim tribalist anyway.

We already have a written constitution, just not all written in one place. If only the Lizards would obey the one we've got. Then we wouldn't need fellow travelers like you to whinge about another bill of "rights" that will undoubtedly be a lot less liberal than our 1689 bill.

Anonymous said...

They will want everyone to have ID cards next - "to protect us against terrorists and criminals" - yeah right ! As far as I am concerned I would flatly refuse - I already have ID in the form of a passport, driving licence and credit cards etc...
As far as monitoring e-mails is concerned, I will just program my PC to send out thousands of crazy e-mails with key words like "bomb", "kill Blair", "Al Queda", "blow up the plane"... if enough people do that their system will not be able to cope and crash.

Anonymous said...

no joke. This is modernity.