UK Communication and data bill

So, you don't believe we live in a police state? Here in the UK we have the highest density of CCTV surveillance cameras in the World, we have police undercover operations to infiltrate legitimate protest groups, we have stop and search powers and detention without trial for terror suspects. And now we have this. At a time when the UK press are being hauled before an enquiry over phone hacking and police corruption Theresa May is handing powers to those same corrupt police forces to effectively hack our voice and data communications, and get this, they don't even need a warrant for the basic intel, just enough of a suspicion to satisfy a senior police officer. Now don't get me wrong, I know well enough that the police and security services have been doing this routinely for a while now, this legislation just formalises it and allows the intel to be used in court. Don't believe me? Why do you think Research in Motion (RIM) the company behind Blackberry phones is in trouble over its refusal to give encryption details to its BBM messenger service to governments?

Ok, lets look at the facts. We know from multiple miscarriage of justice cases, government enquiries, police complaints released under freedom of information rules, investigations by alternative media journalists and the like that the police are not the most trustworthy group in the World. We also know from multiple public scandals that our politicians are not beyond a little corruption. We know that surveillance and monitoring has been called into question in numerous miscarriage of justice cases. So what is the background to this new legislation? Why are we being subjected to yet more controls? I think the answer is clear. The UK government knows that the population is restless. The utter failure to have any impact on the economic crisis, the inability to deal with widespread corporate tax avoidance, the ongoing crisis of politicians on the take despite being caught out once already, the nest feathering continuing amongst the already wealthy, the endemic food and fuel poverty that is increasing. All of these add up to a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction, a groundswell of the disaffected, and our leaders are worried.

The thing is, that this new legislation formalises government and police powers to exert ever more draconian controls over the UK population. How long before social services are monitoring parents facebook activity to check if they are suitable parents? How long before we have to watch what groups we belong to online, or what youtube videos we watch? How long before we start to see detention of people suspected of challenging the status quo? I'll tell you this, I'm looking very carefully at my friends lists, which email accounts receive which emails, my texting and messaging lists, and I'm going to be cleaning house, because this, my friends is the thick end of the wedge that started with Thatchers destruction of the unions and the great UK utilities sell off. One by one our freedoms have been eroded, from the freedom of assembly, to the right to a free press, and now there are very few freedoms left. The system is coming down around our ears and the people who are most in need of help are once again the ones least likely to receive it.

I will understand if you, my readers decide that this blog is too risky to continue reading, but for my part I can only do my best to keep the flame of freedom burning, to keep reporting on the efforts to keep us deaf, blind and dumb, to keep us uninformed, to keep us down. Not for me the easy path of quiet acceptance....but this is my fight, and each of us must fight in our own way.