trivia

[Q G Campbell]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adrian Midgley [mailto:akm@92tr.freeserve.co.uk]
> Sent: 13 July 2001 00:34
> To: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> Subject: Re: trivia
>=20
>=20
> Owen feels safer than I would in theory.
> Fortunately, the risk is in any case small in practice
> unless the provisions of RIPA might apply to the effects on
> the State of a large departure of GPs from NHS contracts; and=20
> discussions, partly encrypted, were going on between=20
> significant numbers of GPs; of which I were one.

Forget RIPA. If I were one of the GPs involved, I would be more
concerned about being pursued under the Terrorism Act, particularly if
our actions were likely to bring down the Government and force an
election (cf. Ted Heath in 1972).

Your actions seem to meet the interpretation of "Terrorism" given in
S1(2). You would appear to be acting on ideological/political grounds
and pursuing a course of action which might not be violent in itself but
"which can, in a modern society, have a devastating impact". Such
activity as you describe could, on the face of it, be held to put life,
health or safety at risk.

It seems to me that a confrontation between a majority of GPs and the
Government is a more threatening situation than the one postulated by
Ross Anderson in an earlier posting (on possible applications of the
Terrorism Act in medical contexts).
  =20
Quentin
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    =20