call.copse (9/8/2013)
As worrying as anything is a lack of concern on the part of journalists and ordinary folk to even be interested in a debate about where the end of these powers should be.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/07/britons-privacy-not-important%5B/quote%5D
That Guardian article gets one thing horribly wrong. The BBC didn't follow the public into acceptance of the destruction of our freedoms, it went over to supporting everything government did and suppressing as much as it dared of the controversy caused by outrageous legislation and the ever-increasing transfer of power from parliament to government as soon as Tony Blair entered no 10. It (together with newspaper media in the pockets of totalitarians, or believers that the security-related services could never do wrong) led the public into apathy and complacency, not followed it.
The security establishment effectively has the leadership of the current coalition bamboozled into believing anything they are told about the necessity for yet more erosion of privacy and freedom from unwarranted surveillance (they succeeded doing that almost as soon as Cameron became PM) which means yet more power for the state-owned agencies and less effective freedom for ordinary citizens, the BBC is happy to provide the same service for as it did for Blair. After all, he too is heading for the ideal left wing statist situation, which the BBC's editorial and reporting staff and their management see as ideal, and his coalition is bringing forward legislation to stifle not only protest and civil disobedience but also discussion of controversial policies (the lobbying bill currently before parliament). Isn't it odd how both leftist and rightist forms of totalitarianisms have the same objectives? The whole left-right dichotomy is just a smoke-screen, with both main parties in the USA and all three main parties in the UK heading for the same totalitarian statist ideals in which the existing political establishment and those they favour will be the only ones who can get elected to any legislative body (we haven't quite got there yet over here, as evidenced by a small number of MPs who are prepared to disagree with their party leaders, but under the direction of our current politicians intelligence services we are certainly heading that way).
Tom