Monday, April 02, 2012

anything above a whisper will be heard

May 2010: The new Tory-LibDem administration publish The Coalition: Our Programme For Government. On page 11 they tell us:
The Government believes that the British state has become too authoritarian, and that over the past decade it has abused and eroded fundamental human freedoms and historic civil liberties. We need to restore the rights of individuals in the face of encroaching state power...

We will implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties and roll back state intrusion...

April 2012:

The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon. Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.


= = = = = = = = = = = = =


If you enjoyed this hypocrisy in the Coalition's foundation document, you may also like:

- We will stop the top-down reorganisations of the NHS that have got in the way of patient care
- We will continue public sector investment in carbon capture and storage
- We will restore rights to non-violent protest.

1 comment:

Jim Bliss said...

There's been some concern about this proposal over here in Ireland too. Because of the way the infrastructure of the internet works, virtually all Irish internet traffic is routed through the UK. So if the UK government is monitoring all UK net traffic, it means they will - by default - also be monitoring almost all Irish net traffic.

Of course, the UK govt won't have the right to kick down doors in Dublin at 4 in the morning and cart off suspected terrorists because of a few dodgy emails. Still pisses me off though.