Re: Just a question
the bits of law clearly unfit for purpose
For whose purpose?
There is only law at all in this area because the crown prerogative that "authorised" such activity in the past failed to pass muster in courts increasingly influenced by international treaties and standards. Each successive iteration of the spook laws has been about providing a legal veneer for "business as usual". What this has meant is becoming increasingly explicit about powers already being exercised. This isn't about new powers, it's simply an attempt to legitimise activity that already takes place and that might otherwise be subject to a legal challenge - while simultaneously allowing enough wiggle room to avoid the need to legislate again if the boundaries are pushed a bit further.
It's certainly not the intention of this bill to remove any powers that are currently believed to exist.
The problem, as even MPs have now pointed out, is that those powers are likely illegal already and will remain illegal under either EU treaties or the ECHR regardless of what this bill says.
The fact that the "law and order" party are pushing this hard, knowing that it is essentially inconsistent with international law, tells you that they prize "order" above "law" - as in the "natural order" of the rich man in his castle and the poor man at the gate.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
