Home Office data grab

[David Hansen]

On 20 May 2008 at 15:23, Ian Batten wrote:

> I presume Home Office and Thames House are trying to get what they can  
> rammed through by this government before it falls, worrying that the  
> Tories might not be quite to friendly towards surveillance.

Quite possibly.

> Still,  
> Labour claimed they were in favour of civil liberties until they came  
> to power: didn't we speculate that Jack Straw had been given `the  
> briefing' after which he signed off any and all measures that were put  
> to him?

I think it quite likely that party politicians are threatened that some 
information will be released about them unless they dance to the tune 
of officials. A few, Ken Clarke was the last reasonable Home Secretary, 
have the backbone to resist.

The other possibility is that the problem is old man syndrome. As 
people get older they tend to worry that the sky is only being held up 
by a thin line. Put such a person in power and they are likely to want 
all sorts of things done to others, as long as they are exempt. Thus 
war criminals like Mr Liar swan around and the police make no attempt 
to arrest them while preventing others from enforcing the law. As I 
have said before the definition of Terrorism in the 2000 act is very 
clear and it applies to the invasion of Iraq. Either the law is wrong, 
or the actions are terrorism. There is no third possibility.



-- 
  David Hansen, Edinburgh 
 I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents 
me   
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54