Sloppy legislation
The legislation was kicking around since before 1984, and law makers would have had their opportunity to scrutinise drafts and table amendments. That didn't happen until relatively recently when people realised the '84 Act was a bit.. vague. Especially given rulings around what privacy could be expected under EU and other legislation.
So now we have new legislation which more tightly defines what can be slurped, and who can access the data. And perhaps most importantly, creates additional privacy expectations for politicians, even though they're probably more corruptable than us oiks.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
