The snoopers charter which ALREADY allows the most extensive spying on its own citizens outside of China or North Korea (and possible actually worse given the higher levels of connectivity here) is intended to be increased by the Tories. Much of the justification is these 1 man in a van attacks which horrendous as they are, are no more than occurs on a daily basis in most major cities by alcohol or mentally ill people. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/technology/britain-encryption-privacy-hate-speech.html?ribbon-ad-idx=15&rref=world/europe Given that the existing snooping powers in the UK "Recent legislation already gives Britain’s law enforcement officials some of the world’s strongest powers to read and monitor online chatter" have done NOTHING to stop these man in a van or man with a knife attacks, DESPITE a number of them being on international watch listsm it beggars the question of How would increasing these powers actually make a difference given that even the attacks by KNOWN Islamist extremists on UK and international watch lists were not affected in any way ? How is policing and monitoring of those spying on UK citizens going to be carries out and reported and properly policed - including reporting to the public what is occurring or has occurred? http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/contents/enacted Worth noting: In the US spying on the nations OWN citizens is treated differently to foreign nationals. Do we really want the UK to be the envy of North Korea - for all the wrong reasons?

What a surprise. Labour are siding with the conservatives to push through the communications bill, or "snoopers charter" They are blaming the death of that soldier killed in Woollwich as justification. This was not a terrorist incident, it was murder, and to put spin on it to justify redacting more of our civil liberties in the name of civil protection is abhorrent. Newspeak has wormed its way into the very fabric of our society. What is more worrying is that people are accepting it without question. They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.