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More Plans For UK Internet Snooping Bill Revealed In Queen's Speech
TheGift73 writes "By far the most controversial bill discussed in the Queen's speech today has to be the 'Draft Communications Bill' which '...will allow the police and intelligence agencies to collect data on communications, like texts and emails, flexible to changes in technology, such as the Internet. This will apply UK wide.' The Queen's Speech has set out the government's legislative plans for the next year."
El Reg has the skinny on the CCDP related parts. From their article: "It's unclear if those 'strict safeguards' mean that a warrant, for example, would be needed before spooks could access such data. The rough proposal appeared to only fuzzily indicate that such protection for British citizens would be provided, however."
Near the end of the speech the queen also was heard to say "We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia."
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
The Queen is given the speech to read... she is merely stating the objectives of the current party (or coallition in this case). Got nothing to do with her net abilities or knowledge.
Well...
She has a weekly audience with the prime minister, and it's not known what's said behind those closed doors.
So, if you want to believe she keeps her role separate from politics, then there's no evidence to contradict that view.
But also, if you want to believe she takes a keen interest, and nudges the government to do what she wants, there's no evidence to contradict that either.
It is true that if a government gave her a speech she really didn't agree with, she'd be obliged by convention to read it -- or spark a constitutional crisis.
This will all become more interesting when Charles becomes king, since he's much more forthcoming about his own political views.
Ironically a couple of sentences earlier in The Queen's Speech, she read the sentence that "The government will protect freedom of speech."
This phrase shows just how backwards monarchy is. Free speech is not something the government protects. Free speech is something that protects you from the government. If the government can decide which speech to protect, you don't really have free speech at all.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
To be completely precise, British people are fascinated by celebrities as much as Americans. One of this celebrity happens to be the queen and co. And, as an interesting note, the royal family happens to be celebrity in many countries, including the USA. There's no "us and them" here.
The UK already elects a leader
No we don't. We elect MPs, not the leader.
The PM is chosen by the conservative party as they created a majority by forming a coalition - only 32% of the nation using the FPTP system elected the conservatives in to government.
This would make some of the most corrupt governments in the world happy to have such unfair systems. UK still uses it.