Free Speech Under Attack

In the UK we are living in very dangerous times for ‘free speech’ …. One of the risks of having an unwritten constitution with assumptions of ‘rights is that those ‘assumptions’, are often open to ‘reinterpretation' by any Government that wishes to do so, often with very little public scrutiny.

In general the left wing has always been anti libertarian in nature, with a vaguely Stalinist desire for information on its subjects, and a strong desire to control through legislation. The communist regimes from the USSR, through to China and North Korea, have tried to control information, and the means of its distribution.

In the UK this has manifested itself through banning type legislation on such subjects as Cigarettes, Alcohol, Maternity/Paternity laws and countless other laws. As well as negative acts such as the refusal to offer a referendum on Europe, open immigration policies, which allow uneducated immigrants to enter the UK (even Ministers boyfriends), and attempts to protect Islam from criticism.

But we in the West, have always prided ourselves that we have kept the state from having such control, that it would know what we thought, or who we associated with, but it maybe that the new ‘Spy’ legislation, that forces ISP to store information for at least 12 months, has ended that proud boast. The legislation comes at the behest of the EU, but as usual, this UK government has taken a chance to extend it further, and make it potentially the most totally intrusive peacetime piece of legislation in UK history.

The data stored, does not include the actual content of e-mails or actual recordings of net phone calls, or the content of the web pages visited (storage details are of e-mail addresses, website URLS visited and net phone call numbers), but is used to determine connections between individuals. Other Authorities can get access to the stored records with a warrant…. and on the flimsiest of grounds (Fly tipping gangs are one of the suggested uses!)

The Government says that, “adequate safeguards exist and that Access to communications data is governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) which ensures that effective safeguards are in place and that the data can only be accessed when it is necessary and proportionate to do so."

But liberty campaigners suggest that this is the thin edge of a very long wedge, and that we are already in a police state, with better surveillance of its subjects than that of the STASI, NKVD or KGB, because we also have more surveillance cameras as well as ‘wire taps’ than any other industrialised state.

There are also grave doubts, that the proclaimed cause of all this loss of freedom “Anti Terrorism”, won’t actually be aided by this ‘data mining’, as the inferences to be drawn by the ‘connections’ can be wrong. After all we are all allegedly only 6 acquaintances away from anyone in the world (a much exaggerated urban myth, but you get my point) including presumably terrorists.

As Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group points out “People who really do want to do obnoxious things will simply hide themselves away - using encryption techniques and anonymisers. It will make it harder for the security services that actually monitor the people they think are a risk." . I for one would now consider using encryption software on a few secure folders to stop government snoops opening my files, but for the fact that in the UK, the authorities can use the Regulation of the Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to try to force people to hand over the 'keys' which lock and unlock encrypted data.

I repeat, we are at the cross roads as a nation with freedom of speech, thought, and conscience, and may even have tipped over the edge. We may have to rely on legal challenges that are underway in Sweden and Germany, to restore a balance to British freedoms that this government keeps attempting to curb.

However, plans to introduce the proposed ‘centralised’ database into legislation (which could cost millions), have continued to be put on the back burner, after it failed to appear in the draft Communications Data Bill. It follows the comments of the UK's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, who called it a "step too far for the British way of life".

But whenever you give up a hard earned inch of your rights, you never get them back, and we are still creeping towards the day when your every moment will be monitored.