Lib Dems in the House of Lords have, once more, blocked the Snoopers’ Charter.
An amendment to the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill was withdrawn following pressure from Lib Dem Peers who have raised arguments against the proposed legislation throughout the Bill’s passage through the Lords
The amendment, led by the Conservative Peer Lord King, would have seen a copycat of the previously blocked Data Communications Bill introduced into the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill currently going through Parliament.
Lib Dem Peer and Former MET Police Officer Brian Paddick commented:
Nick Clegg fought off the discredited Data Communications Bill in government and Liberal Democrats led the charge to defeat this cynical attempt to reintroduce the so-called “snoopers’ charter” in the Lords. We will continue to block attempts to reintroduce these provisions in any form to defend the civil liberties and privacy of innocent people across the UK.
The BBC reports:
A cross-party group of peers has dropped a second attempt to add the so-called “snoopers’ charter” to the government’s counter-terrorism bill.
Lords King, Blair, Carlile and West wanted measures on communications data, rejected by the Lib Dems in 2012, to be included in the bill, saying they were vital tools for combating terrorism.
But they withdrew their amendment and it did not go to a vote.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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5 Comments
Well done and thank-you to all concerned.
Good result lib dems holding the line for freedom
Before we all get too excited, though, let’s remember that this is going to come back at some point. My betting is that it’ll go in both Labour and Tory manifestos and we will have to hold firm through another Parliament. Civil liberties are under real threat in the name of “keeping us all safe.” Liberals are seriously necessary in the years to come – probably more so than we have been in my lifetime so far.
Are we in a majority or minority here with public opinion, most people I listen to seem ambivalent, uncaring or accepting to the proposal.
@theakes
Perhaps at the moment we are. When Labour and Tories agree on something then the media barely report it as there isn’t much of an argument to debate. If the issue became more prominent I expect we’ll see that change, as we did with ID cards and DNA databases.
There will always be those who say “I’ve got nothing to hide”, and they are more than welcome to send every piece of information about them to GCHQ…