NO2ID

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Th ... 042012.htm

Backlash over Government surveillance plans
Chris Havergal

Civil liberties campaigners from Cambridge – including MP Julian Huppert – are spearheading a growing backlash over plans for a major expansion of the Government’s powers to monitor the email and phone exchanges of every UK citizen.

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 any phone call made, text message and email sent and website accessed, in ‘real-time’, on demand and without a warrant.

A previous attempt to introduce a similar law was abandoned by the Labour government in 2006 in the face of fierce opposition from the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and civil liberties groups.

Dr Huppert said: “I will not support any plans which allow the state to view the content of private emails, telephone calls, text messages or any electronic communications without a warrant.

“It would be completely wrong for the Government to revive Labour’s authoritarian plans for a centralised database to enable intelligence officers to access our personal lives. Government and the security services should not be given a free pass to snoop on the private lives of my constituents.”

Liberal Democrat Dr Huppert said it was already far too easy for people in Government departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions to access data.

...

Andrew Watson, Cambridge co-ordinator of civil liberties campaign No2ID, said the proposals were shocking.

He said: “Under these plans, bureaucrats at job centres, local councils, the Office of Fair Trading and even the Charity Commission would be able to spy on everything you are doing online, and you would never know when you are being watched. And nobody else would either, because none of this would need a warrant.

“These are powers that the East German Stasi or North Korean dictators could only dream about.”

...

Much of the concern from the communications industry has focused on the cost of maintaining records of conversations and Ray Anderson, chief executive of Milton Road-based mobile technology company Bango, argued the measures simply would not work.

He told the News: “I thought the plans were an April Fool joke. Techniques to avoid surveillance under such draconian plans are well-known to bad people.

“The dangers to innocent people from errors, incompetence or malpractice by politicians or civil servants are high.”

...

Sequence of necessary events for a government to introduce draconian legislation:

1) Make a press release (preferably on a Sunday, and even better on April Fool's day) that, whilst utterly devoid of hard fact, appears to announce a new law that is so extreme no-one can really believe it.

2) Allow press speculation and adverse comment to brew up into something hopefully near hysteria.

3) Reassure that everyone is indeed over-reacting - the law won't really be applied to them.

4) Press chums should now use the word 'backlash' letting those who want to live in a fools paradise resume so doing in the belief that the threat is being successfully repelled.

5) Sit tight while the fuss dies down, uttering soothing words only as necessary.

6) Wait for a suitable story in the press that can be twisted to illustrate just why the new law is needed and then choose that day to publish the proposed legislation couched in innocuous language, but containing more devil in the detail than was initially even suggested.

7) Deal with any hoo-ha that ensues by appearing to be all-ears to criticism. When everyone has practically exhausted themselves and are starting to get bored with the subject make just enough trivial concessions to shut up.

Bribe any remaining opponents with cushy jobs or blackmail them over expenses claims; ridicule the opposition for being weak on terrorism/paedophiles etc (whatever the mot du jour is).

9) Pass the legislation on a day everyone is heading off for a bank holiday weekend.

10) Don't make use of the new laws for a while in order to let everyone believe their fears were unfounded.

11) Take the now well-cooked frog out of the boiling water - and eat it, spitting out the bones.