Tag Archives: Draft Investigatory Powers Bill

Nick Clegg compares Investigatory Powers Bill powers to Russia

By The Voice | Thu 11th February 2016 - 8:25 pm

On the Today programme, Nick Clegg compared the “dragnet” approach of Theresa May’s Investigatory Powers Bill to the way things happen in Russia.

During the Coalition years, Nick had stopped the Conservatives from introducing a “snooper’s charter.” It’s worth remembering that he was going to let it through until a conference call with some angry bloggers who understood the technology, and the intervention of people like Julian Huppert, made him think twice. But once he’s changed his mind, he was good to his word and held May off for 3 years.

The Guardian quotes him as saying this morning:

He said: “Why there is this great congregation of concern from all wings of political opinion is because what the home office is in essence proposing is that in order to be able to surveil and analyse something they are saying they want to collect everything on everyone. That is a dragnet approach which I have always felt is disproportionate.”

He dismissed the analogy of the needle in the haystack – the argument that the security agencies need to embark on the bulk collection of data in order to be able to find crucial nuggets of details about terrorists.

He told Today: “I know the needle-haystack argument and it is a comforting analogy. But the reality is a little different. Why, for instance, is there no other European or Commonwealth country that I know that pursues this dragnet approach?

Lord Paul Strasburger writes…Report shows that nobody thinks Home Office is right on investigatory powers

By Paul Strasburger | Thu 11th February 2016 - 12:37 pm

Today the Joint Committee published its report on the draft Investigatory Powers Bill. This follows hot on the heels of the Intelligence and Security Committee report which was surprisingly critical of the serious shortcomings of the Bill given its previous rather relaxed approach – what a difference a new Chair makes, you could say.

I was the only member of the Joint Committee that also sat on the Committee that looked at Theresa May’s last attempt to legislate on surveillance powers – the ill-fated draft Communications Data Bill. The previous committee had twice as long to look at the Bill than we’ve had this time round, despite the fact that this Bill is far bigger. The Home Secretary promised Parliament and the public that this process wouldn’t be rushed, that is not the reality.

As the only Liberal Democrat on the committee I knew it would be tough, and I think it will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that from the committee was heavily weighted in favour of the Home Office. It was a hard slog but as always with the Lib Dems, we managed to punch above our weight. If you flick to the back of the report you’ll see that on a whole range of issues I forced votes – sometimes I got others on side and we won, others were more lonely.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured and house of lords | 2 Comments

Latest Tory folly

By Anthony Durham | Fri 6th November 2015 - 8:04 pm

View image | gettyimages.com

As a scientist and computer entrepreneur, I am constantly appalled by the blindness to evidence and logic displayed by right-wing politicians. So I heartily endorse New Scientist’s editorial lamenting absurdities in the proposed Snooper’s Charter following hard on the heels of the Psychoactive Substances Bill:

This pattern of ill-conceived pledges followed by impractical legislation looks ominously as though it will be repeated in energy and education. That suggests the government is either scientifically illiterate or can get its way by assuming its citizens are.

Posted in Op-eds | 2 Comments

LibLink: Nick Clegg – MI5 access to phone calls kept secret from most ministers

By Mary Reid | Fri 6th November 2015 - 1:34 pm

Writing in The Guardian today, Nick Clegg claims that in 2010:

When a senior official took me aside and told me that the previous government had granted MI5 direct access to records of millions of phone calls made in the UK– a capability only a tiny handful of senior cabinet ministers knew about – I was astonished that such a powerful capability had not been declared either to the public or to parliament and insisted that its necessity should be reviewed.

That the existence of this previously top secret database was finally revealed in parliament by the home secretary on Wednesday, as part of a comprehensive new investigatory powers bill covering many other previously secret intelligence capabilities, speaks volumes about how far we’ve come in a few short years.

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged nick clegg | 5 Comments

Draft Investigatory Powers Bill – initial Twitter reaction

By Newspuppy | Wed 4th November 2015 - 2:21 pm

Here’s a few of the reactions to the new draft bill from Twitter:

https://twitter.com/jamesrbuk/status/661904968404873216

Home Secretary failed to answer @nick_clegg on why Privacy and Civil Liberties Board is not being set up

— Lib Dem Media Team (@LibDemPress) November 4, 2015

Posted in News | Leave a comment

Draft Investigatory Powers Bill – the key points and link to the full text

By NewsHound | Wed 4th November 2015 - 1:13 pm

View image | gettyimages.com

The Guardian has helpfully just published this handy guide to the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, just announced in parliament by Teresa May:

Requires web and phone companies to store records of websites visited by every citizen for 12 months for access by police, security services and other public bodies.

Posted in News | Also tagged featured, snoopers charter and theresa may | 13 Comments