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The BBC has a story about government plant to introduce a new law to allow real-time snooping of British Internet users' activity.
The law would demand a very minimal level of judicial oversight (a judge appointed by the Prime Minister) and the approval of politicians (secretaries of state) so the protection against politically-motivated abuse is effectively nil.
Furthermore, the law will effectively require that backdoors be built into encryption protocols to permit the reading of data on demand.
The news has not been widely publicised by the government, and most people are occupied with Brexit at the moment, so it has not been very well noticed.
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Realtime Internet Surveillance in the UK
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Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:48AM (12 children)
Why are people in government so stupid?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:58AM
Possibly, because they don't understand the English language. The believe that "govern" is entirely synonymous with "control". A "governor" is synonymous with "martinet".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @11:57AM (9 children)
Who was so smart to vote for them?
Seriously though. Some are stupid, some are uninformed, some are there for their own ego and some want to profit (not serve the country)... of what's left most decide to not go into the government, leaving only a very few that actually contribute... often in opposition.
Here in The Netherlands every year there is a report on politicians involved in shady businesses (even if it doesn't make it into the news), per party. The parties that have most of these politicians are often the ruling parties. The Panama papers showed the same for various other countries.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Sunday May 07 2017, @01:45PM
People will vote for whatever the Television tells them to or their Facebook streams hypnotize them into. Need to solve that problem before democracy can have a revival.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @02:50PM (1 child)
"Make a success of Brexit"
"Strong Leadership"
"Falklands"
"Ra ra ra!"
That should do it for convincing most of the country.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday May 07 2017, @06:34PM
Don't forget going to war with Spain over Gibraltar. And making sure that Northern Ireland and Scotland don't run away.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @07:18PM (4 children)
Who was so smart to vote for them?
The English?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:23PM (3 children)
And they're about to return them to power for another five years with a landslide on 8th June.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Monday May 15 2017, @03:14PM (2 children)
The Greens are trying their best to push forward the idea of a "progressive alliance", aka the ABC (Anyone But the Conservatives) principle but the Labour party, as tribal as ever, won't go for it; the only takeaway I have from that is that they're not serious about improving the lot of the non-rich, only about getting into power, a risible choice given the hostile press/media. Labour under Corbyn have been painted as somewhere to the left of Karl Marx, yet a brief look at the political positions of mainstream European politics show them to be pretty much textbook social democratic.
Much has been made of May's recent announcement to allow workers up to a year off to care for sick relatives. Buried in the small print is that this would be unpaid, so the ones who would benefit from such a measure - anyone who can't afford to hire people to look after a sick relative - would be unable to take advantage of it as they'd have no salary coming in. It's very much pro-business, which in and of itself I have no issue with, but is also profoundly anti-worker, something that means I could never vote Conservative.
If all the people who normally don't bother to vote actually get themselves registered, get their vote cast and vote for the non-Conservative alternative in their area, damn near every single Tory would be out of a seat. Apathy is what'll gift them the election, not belief that they're policies are good for the country.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by turgid on Monday May 15 2017, @07:53PM (1 child)
Which is a shame.
They're also a "unionist" party, in that they believe in the continuity of the United Kingdom. At the moment, of course, the SNP have nearly all of the Scottish seats in the Commons, and the SNP are effectively Social Democrats too. The Liberal Democrats have ruled out an alliance with the SNP, for similar reasons. The result is that the pro-Union Scots are rallying around the Conservative Party while the SNP retains a huge following and Labour and the Liberal Democrats will probably be wiped out there. It's interesting to note that the Scottish Greens are pro-independence.
Agreed.
Indeed. I'm thinking about voting for them this time around. I live in England in a "safe" Conservative seat, and I usually vote for progressive parties, even though they'll never get in power. I vote to show support for their policies, which over the course of 20-30 years tend to trickle down into the mainstream.
This time I will probably be voting Labour because, as you say, they are pretty much textbook social democratic. I agree with the majority of their new policies. Not only that, this country is at a turning point where we risk plunging into a fascist police state with no opposition. It is important to resist the Conservatives as strongly as possible. The only way to unseat my Conservative MP is by voting Labour. [tactical2017.com]. I also think that Corbyn is a breath of fresh air in this increasingly cynical world.
Absolutely. It's yet another piece of cynical Conservative electioneering designed to appeal to the slow of wit and selfish. It's very bad for society.
Are you mad? There's XBox One to be played and Netflix to be watched [wikipedia.org].
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Informative) by purple_cobra on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:31PM
Fairly safe Labour seat here (majority was >6k in 2015, IIRC) and the local MP isn't a bad sort at all, but I'll be voting Labour nevertheless; as you say, Corbyn is a pleasant change and having a manifesto that has some figures attached to it was good to see. Have any of the tabloids pulled-up the Conservatives for the nastier parts of their manifesto (dementia tax, FFS) or the fact that there's little to no costing? Of course not! Where my family live is another safe Labour seat, albeit with an MP who's a bit of a tool. Two down several hundred to go!
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday May 08 2017, @08:36AM
Who was so smart to vote for them?
Both the Labour and Conservative parties have terrible track records when it comes to idiotic ideas on regulating tech.
We even have to opt-out of the government selling our personal details to companies, including for the purpose of 'direct marketing'. [ico.org.uk]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 07 2017, @02:53PM
Why are people in government so stupid?
Don't attribute to stupidity what can be explained with malice..