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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday May 28 2015, @08:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the privacy-goes-the-way-of-the-dodo dept.

The BBC reports on the forthcoming pieces of legislation announced on behalf of the ruling Conservative party by the Queen in her speech to parliament yesterday. Among the bills is the re-introduction of the "Communications and Data Bill", the spiritual successor to the controversial Snoopers Charter:

The Queen's Speech on 27 May will set out the the [sic] government's legislative plans for the parliamentary session ahead. What can we expect to feature?

Communications and Data Bill

This was the bill that the Conservatives' smaller coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, refused to back in the last Parliament. Current [surveillance] legislation expires in 2016 and will have to be renewed. So now the Conservatives are governing alone, they can bring back what opponents call the snoopers' charter. The previous plans proposed to extend the range of data communications companies have to store for 12 months. It would have included, for the first time, details of messages sent on social media, webmail, voice calls over the internet and gaming, in addition to emails and phone calls. Officials would not have been able to see the content of the messages without a warrant. Currently communications firms only retain data about who people send emails to, and who they ring.

The European Court of Justice previously overturned Europe-wide legislation that allowed less invasive surveillance than the Snoopers Charter is aiming for, passed shortly after the terrorist bombings in London and Madrid in 2006. Prime Minister David Cameron locked horns with then-Deputy PM Nick Clegg on the issue, initially causing a three-month deadlock that culminated in widely criticised "emergency" legislation being passed in 2014 to legitimise ongoing surveillance initiatives, then again in January of this year when Cameron attempted to reintroduce the Communications and Data Bill, citing the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris as justification.


[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]

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  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:33AM

    by isostatic (365) on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:33AM (#189021) Journal

    I blame the lib dems. If they hadn't been in power the the torts would have lasted this year ago! Thank god we got rid of the lib dems and elected a majority Tory government, although one that is a slave to the back benchers.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Thursday May 28 2015, @07:57PM

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 28 2015, @07:57PM (#189283) Journal

      I blame the lib dems. If they hadn't been in power the the torts would have lasted this year ago!

      Having decyphered your typos, I think I can add to that.

      Yes, it's all the Lib Dems' fault for forming a pact with the Devil for five years in order to provide a stable government. As they compromised some of their policies to reign in the more rabid Tory policies, the not-very-clever electorate decided that they (Lib Dems) had gone back on their promises and were therefore untrustworthy, opportunistic liars. Meanwhile, the Tories came out with ever-more draconian and sadistic ideas for abusing the poor, disabled, young, sick and elderly to appeal to their former more xenophobic and bigoted supporters threatening to vote for UKIP...

      So all the small-minded, ignorant, misinformed, selfish Little Englanders came out of their festering coffins on election day and voted Tory. None of this stuff was a secret. The Tories were crowing about it on the run-up to the election.

      And I blame Nick Clegg.

      • (Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:34PM

        by wantkitteh (3362) on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:34PM (#189341) Homepage Journal

        When the coalition was formed, the Lib Dems had 57 seats and the Conservatives had 307. Given that the Lib Dems effectively made up just 18.5% of the Government, why would anyone expect them to be able to live up to every detail of their manifesto like they won an overall majority? Oh yeah, that's right, Clegg was deputy Prime Minister - it doesn't matter that it was basically a courtesy posting to the leader of the smaller party in the coalition, it's as good as the real thing! And how dare Clegg join up with Cameron to form the only feasible majority coalition when the UK really needed any stable government at all to see it through the economic turmoil! Right?

        *sigh* CDB goes through, I'm leaving the country.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mojo chan on Friday May 29 2015, @09:40AM

        by mojo chan (266) on Friday May 29 2015, @09:40AM (#189586)

        The Lib Dems could have formed a coalition with Labour. The numbers added up, and there were in fact having talks with Labour about it. Their policies and overall position were much closer to Labour, and it would have avoided the worst abuses of the Tory party that they were unable to moderate.

        Clegg is to blame. He did a deal with the devil, and he had a choice that would still have got him into power.

        --
        const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:36AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:36AM (#189022) Journal
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday May 28 2015, @11:22AM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday May 28 2015, @11:22AM (#189042) Journal

    The US and Britain initially rushed this sort of policy through after 911 as an "emergency" measure. Now they're doing it long after the dust from that has settled, claiming it's a "normal" thing they need. Total surveillance has failed over and over to prevent terrorism and mass killings, so we all ought to know by now that is not its purpose. It is a kill switch for democracy and freedom.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.