The BBC [bbc.co.uk] has a story about government plant to introduce a new law to allow real-time snooping of British Internet users' activity [bbc.co.uk].
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.