Lord Knight of Weymouth raises valid concerns. In particular, there has been no public debate and one can do little but conclude it was always the government’s intention there should be no debate.
The blanket harvesting of data concerning the everyday communications of the citizens of a state is hardly an innocuous activity for a government to undertake. It attempts to justify the activity by citing vague and generalised threats. Yet, as any technically competent person will tell you, if one is serious about communicating away from the gaze of government surveillance, there are ways and means of doing it.
It is also common knowledge that the intelligence community was aware of the 7/7 bombers long before they carried out their attack. The same intelligence community has had many successes without the facility the government’s overarching new powers are claimed to offer.
The recent paedophile success was achieved without this sort of system. Just using conventional techniques that have been known since the first days of the Internet. Techniques that are specific, carefully targeted and do not impinge on those who are innocent.
So what are these powers for? The answer is inescapble. To watch you. You. The individual. To know who you talk to, how often, how regularly, for how long, from where, by what means.
This is not about the detection of the terrorist. We are already pretty good at that. One or two will always get through, but overall MI5, et al do a very good job. This is about control of the people. It is Big Brother writ large.
Ian Sedwell
