Slashdot Mirror
Theresa May Becomes UK's 'Spy Queen' and New Prime Minister (arstechnica.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Ars Technica: Theresa May has become the new British Prime Minister. As she sat down with the Queen on Wednesday, a controversial surveillance draft legislation that looks to significantly increase surveillance of Brits' online activity will be debated during its second committee stage day in the House of Lords. Ars Technica reports: "The Investigatory Powers Act could be in place within months of May arriving at Number 10 -- if peers and legal spats fail to scupper its passage through parliament -- after MPs recently waved it through having secured only minor amendments to the bill. As home secretary, May fought for six years to get her so-called Snoopers' Charter onto the statute books." According to Ars Technica, Theresa May's key political moments on the Investigatory Powers Bill start in 1997 when she became the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead. During her opposition years, her home affairs record shows that she generally votes against the Labour government's more draconian measures on topics such as anti-terrorism and ID cards. Mid-2009: May votes against requiring ISPs to retain certain categories of communications data, which they generate or process, for a minimum period of 12 months. 2010: She was appointed home secretary in coalition government between the Conservatives and junior partner the Liberal Democrats. 2011: The previous government's shelved Interception Modernization Program is rebranded as the Communications Capabilities Development Program (CCDP) by home office under May. Mid-2012: The CCDP morphs into Communications Data Bill, which is brought before parliament. Late-2012: May's Snoopers' Charter bid fails as deputy PM Nick Clegg orders the home office to go back to the drawing board. Mid-2014: May rushes what she characterizes as an "emergency" Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill through parliament, after the European Court of Justice invalidates the Data Retention Directive for failing to have adequate privacy safeguards in place. Late-2015: British security services have intercepted bulk communications data of UK citizens for years, May reveals to MPs for the first time as she brings her revamped Snoopers' Charter bid -- this time dubbed the Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB) -- before parliament. Mid-2016: MPs support thrust of IPB as it passes through the House of Commons. July 13, 2016: Theresa May becomes the UK's new prime minister as peers in the House of Lords undertake a second day of committee stage scrutiny of the Investigatory Powers Bill. UPDATE 7/13/16: Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who led the Brexit campaign, has been made foreign secretary by the new Prime Minister Theresa May.
Seems you're a week or two behind the news.
The UK needs a new prime minister because the previous prime minister has voluntarily stepped down. David Cameron was against the exit from the EU. He decided that since the country's majority ran contrary to his stance, it was a good idea to vacate his position and let someone else lead.
Love sees no species.
Dear editors,
I'm genuinely interested in understanding this summary but, it's effectively a gigantic wall of text that's almost impossible to understand or follow. Could you please, I dunno, edit...
More people voted to leave than to stay. How is that not democratic?
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
* Remain a member of the European Union
* Leave the European Union
Nothing in those two questions asks about who governs Britain. Those are very straight up questions. Stay or stay not was the question, and the majority of Brits clearly chose to stay not.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
It depends what kind of democracy you want and what kind of democracy you have. Democracy isn't a Model T. It doesn't just come in one colour. In the UK we have a representative democracy. It's intended to act as a shield against the temporary whim of the people. It's why we don't have the death penalty. We elect people to arbitrate between the interests of the nation and the people.
Referendums on the other hand are just mob rule. "A device for dictators and demagogues". It's also worth bearing in mind that while most people who voted, voted to leave, it was a minority of the electorate.
I had a dream, bright and carefree, but now there's doubt and gravity
democracy IS the tyranny of the majority. It's two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. When the minority decide and enforce it through an oppressive regime (ie, unelected leaders, two such examples have occurred in the UK in the last ten years), that's despotism.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel