DSS and LAs to trawl internet traffic

[Roland Perry]

In message
<C0E676ADF313D511831700D009F1967D1B17@pc3-swin4-0-cust122.bri.cable.ntl.c
om>, David_Biggins@usermgmt.com writes

>> The opposing is largely down to The Opposition. (As encouraged or
>> otherwise by lobbyists and external PR campaigns).
>
>A principle that assumes the Opposition is not as totally housetrained
>by the services as the Government, and further that the Opposition is
>capable of opposing, rather than tearing itself apart on European
>policy.

I'm not sure this is the right place to be deconstructing several
centuries of our Parliamentary democracy. But then, it is getting close
to Nov 5th ;-)

>Like the man said - "the plan were on display 50 light years away" -
>they spared EVERY expense in letting people know about these.

With so much information available, people need to invest in suitable
filters and notification processes. Not very many people read Hansard
over breakfast any more, for example.

>> The Bill ended up being rushed through because of the election,
>
>Well, it's a nice excuse, anyway....

It was probably in their previous manifesto, so there was some mandate
to actually deliver it.

>> there was no real opposition to any of its proposals, despite
>> reservations from CSPs about many of the assumptions being made.
>
>Ah...  so what you really mean is that the reservations of those
>consulted were actually ignored.

Read the report I linked to. Some things were taken on board, others
not.

>> Regarding how people are supposed to know that initiatives
>> like this are
>> in progress - well that's why we employ parliamentary intelligence
>> organisations and analysts such as myself.
>
>Which few have any real access to.   And we should not NEED
>"parliamentary intelligence" agencies to find out what laws our
>government is going to ditch upon us - the entire process should be far
>more open to the general public and small businesses.

Hansard, and other Govt publications are online now. But there's so much
material to wade through you can't possibly do it all yourself any more.
You *do* have to sponsor people [like Caspar, for example] to do much of
it for you.

>The fact that governments can get away with such tactics, and that
>organisations such as yours effectively make it easier for them to do
>so,

If we didn't exist I'm not sure things would be harder for them (in
terms of getting legislation through without scrutiny).

> is effectively a way of ensuring that only the larger wealthier
>companies ever get a chance to find out what legislation is planned, and
>(usually) to ensure that it is set up to advantage them over smaller
>businesses.

So small business should club together more. Although the BCC is a
reasonably effective lobby for them.
-- 
             Roland Perry | tel: +44 1733 207705 | roland@linx.org
Director of Public Policy | fax: +44 1733 207729 | http://www.linx.net
 London Internet Exchange | mbl: +44 7050 604080 |       /contact/roland