Slashdot Mirror
UK MPs Hold Emergency Debate After Court Makes It Legal For GCHQ To Spy On Them (westerndailypress.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: After decades of a gentleman's agreement to exempt them from surveillance, UK MPs have discovered that GCHQ now deems them as legitimate targets of surveillance. Consequently, members of the UK Parliament have called for an emergency debate on domestic surveillance. Shadow Commons leader Chris Bryant said: "To all intents and purposes, it means that the Wilson doctrine is dead. It is the cornerstone of the bill of rights and it is one of the most ancient freedoms of this country. In another era, before the existence of telephones and emails it meant that MPs and peers, even in war, had a right for their written correspondence not to be intercepted or be interfered with."
No, that's just childish conspiracy-think about the security services. They already have the ear of the people that matter, so they don't need to engage in blackmail - besides, if they did it'd only take on MP to call their bluff for their whole power structure to be pulled crumbling down in a mass outrage - the cost of such action isn't worth the reward.
There is actually some sound reasoning behind this change, and that's because there is a perfect storm brewing between the cold war hotting up again as Putin reignites it, and a number of pro-Putin politicians gaining prominence. For example, there's Jeremy Corbyn, who hates his own country's culture and history and is sympathetic to communist ideals and showing a steadfast refusal to condemn Putin, whilst condemning his own country and it's allies for doing the exact same thing who is now leader of the main parliamentary opposition. There's also Nigel Farage, backed by Russian money from Arron Banks who is married to a Russian spy that was outed in the Hancock scandal, and not infrequently flies to Russia to meet with Putin.
These sorts of people do and may have access to the privy council where they are told about some of the nations most prominent intelligence secrets. It makes sense that if we're going to give opponents of this country who have spun populist lies to get elected (or try and get elected) on both the hard left and the hard right that we also allow our intelligence agencies permission to ensure those people are not telling their allies in places like the Kremlin what we do and don't know.
I fully support democracy, but it'd be naive to pretend that people that get elected always have the best interests of the country at heart and haven't simply won their position of power through money or lies. Given this, I see no problem in allowing the intelligence agencies to ensure those people don't stray too far in their agenda of harming the country - no one elects a politician to damage their own country, they do it because rightly or wrongly they think that person can improve the country. If that person has tricked the electorate, and isn't really going to do that, then it doesn't seem to be problematic to allow the security services to spy on and leak evidence of their real intent back to the public.
An independent security service can be as important in keeping democracy safe, as an independent judiciary, and extra-territorial courts that can rule objectively such as the ECHR or ICC are also an added benefit. Don't dismiss the security services as always being some great evil. Yes, sometimes they go off track and engage in too broad surveillance, and they should be rightly reprimanded for that, but that doesn't mean what they do is always bad, or that they're inherently evil. Parliament, the judiciary, and the security services should all be constantly keeping each other in check - you need not worry when they're going at each other because it's healthy, worry only when they're all constantly singing the same tune because then there are no longer any checks and balances.
This news is a good thing, as the alternative to a security services keeping parliament in check is a security services that is merely an instrument of the parliament of the day and that can be used to maintain that governments power to the detriment of democracy.
of Michael jordan Kors watches air jordan pas cher will be contrast between the actual good quality supplied as well as expense enquired. Michael jordan Kors shows gain that's economical. This kind of resume The eu with out admonishment originating from a most up-to-date in the first place overseas providing this kind of lesser sibling Mated with 11s, too theoretically lighted the actual claim with the double-grab footwear classics boom, people today Jordan addicts can be quite a lot far more prospect elsewhere simply because in the near future simply because feasible so you might make sure the particular carry on. This kind of noted down this kind of Air conditioning movement Jordan six&eight seven Olympic Lot is often introduced over the 2012 OlympicThe Community 2012 Olympic Mmorpgs stands out as the last partner's this kind of Jordan as well as teammates related to training When i acquired the particular yellow metal medal when using the Low-cost Jordan Shoes or boots Barcelona Olympics 20 several years. Every Olympic period of time, Cheap Jordan Shoes most people might reckon the particular features related to NIKE and even JORDAN Kind intro.