Over the next couple of months, the House of Commons will choose a new Speaker. It will be done with the tradition-sodden combination of secrecy and unaccountability which characterises British parliamentary 'democracy'. No one will apply for the job, the choice will be made in secret, and the chosen candidate will pretend to be reluctant to take it.
A number of the MPs who are tipped to take the coveted Speaker's chair after the summer recess are the sort of people generally referred to as "modernisers". This means that, in contrast with the chair's incumbent, they don't like the idea of a parliament where laws can be passed by an unrepresentative handful of MPs, simply because few others fancy sticking around until the early hours of the morning.
When did this happen recently? Why, when our favourite piece of legislation, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers bill, hit the statute books.
It means that, in the name of crime prevention, the Government can now legally snoop on people's email, and that ISPs are forced to install so-called black boxes to record them (and to find out what makes them crash, presumably). The cost to ISPs is potentially ruinous - turn to page 18 for what they think about it. And it's hilariously easy to get around the bill's provisions. There are a number of technical ways of doing it, but the simplest is to use a small ISP, because only big ISPs will have black boxes. That should have Mr Big quaking in his boots.
RIP will not catch a single criminal. All it will do is erode civil liberties.
Big corporations are often accused of failing to move at internet speed, but they're like the nimblest of dotcoms compared to our legislature.
This legislation is appallingly ill-thought out, chillingly draconian and almost utterly useless, all at once. The only parliamentary mystery greater than the process of selecting a new Speaker is the way laws like this get onto the statute books.
- You might notice from the accompanying picture that I appear to have got younger. That's what a virtuous lifestyle does for you.
Big Brother is for real, thanks to the new RIP bill.
Over the next couple of months, the House of Commons will choose a new Speaker. It will be done with the tradition-sodden combination of secrecy and unaccountability which characterises British parliamentary 'democracy'. No one will apply for the job, the choice will be made in secret, and the chosen candidate will pretend to be reluctant to take it.
A number of the MPs who are tipped to take the coveted Speaker's chair after the summer recess are the sort of people generally referred to as "modernisers". This means that, in contrast with the chair's incumbent, they don't like the idea of a parliament where laws can be passed by an unrepresentative handful of MPs, simply because few others fancy sticking around until the early hours of the morning.
When did this happen recently? Why, when our favourite piece of legislation, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers bill, hit the statute books.
It means that, in the name of crime prevention, the Government can now legally snoop on people's email, and that ISPs are forced to install so-called black boxes to record them (and to find out what makes them crash, presumably). The cost to ISPs is potentially ruinous - turn to page 18 for what they think about it. And it's hilariously easy to get around the bill's provisions. There are a number of technical ways of doing it, but the simplest is to use a small ISP, because only big ISPs will have black boxes. That should have Mr Big quaking in his boots.
RIP will not catch a single criminal. All it will do is erode civil liberties.
Big corporations are often accused of failing to move at internet speed, but they're like the nimblest of dotcoms compared to our legislature.
This legislation is appallingly ill-thought out, chillingly draconian and almost utterly useless, all at once. The only parliamentary mystery greater than the process of selecting a new Speaker is the way laws like this get onto the statute books.
- You might notice from the accompanying picture that I appear to have got younger. That's what a virtuous lifestyle does for you.
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