Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Vacuum cleaners and Lib Dems hit back at Theresa May over 'snooper's charter'
I love party conferences. Everybody is so over-the-top that reality and real life gets forgotten for a few days. Well at least as far as the attendees are concerned.
This applies most to Ministers and full-time politicians as is evidenced by Theresa May's repeat gung-ho performance and her misrepresentation of the Liberal Democrats position on the communications data bill. The Guardian has the rebuttal:
The Lib Dems have accused Theresa May of peddling “misinformation” about their opposition to the communications data bill. This is from a party spokesman.
We utterly reject the allegation that the blocking of the communications data bill has put lives at risk.
Police already have the ability to obtain data in urgent cases where lives are in danger.
The real problem is the availability of IP address data, where we have always accepted there is a need for action, and indeed publicly committed to legislation last year.
Frankly, it is woeful inaction on the part of the Home Office that solutions have not been identified to deal with this issue.
If failure to act on the IP matching problem has put lives at risk, the home secretary must explain why her department has not acted.
Theresa May is peddling misinformation in a vain attempt to get the so-called ‘snooper’s charter’ back on the table.
Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose the Tories’ obsessive intrusion into people’s lives.
Of course it is not just Ministers who get carried away, as the Guardian makes clear:
Boris Johnson spoke at a ConservativeHome fringe meeting at the conference last night. In the past these events have sometimes been quasi leadership bid rallies, notable for Johnson giving a speech laced with coded challenges to Cameron and his supporters lapping it up ecstatically.
But last night’s speech was - well, not quite dull, because no Johnson speech ever can can, but scrupulously loyal, and a bit pedestrian. If Johnson said anything interesting about Conserative politics, or how the party should be fighting the election, I missed it.
Still, he did perform one very funny routine. My friends at the Daily Mail, who never miss a trick, have written it up as “an extraordinary attack on Tories who have defected to UKIP, claiming they were the sort of people who injure themselves having sex with vacuum cleaners.”
Each to their own I suppose.
This applies most to Ministers and full-time politicians as is evidenced by Theresa May's repeat gung-ho performance and her misrepresentation of the Liberal Democrats position on the communications data bill. The Guardian has the rebuttal:
The Lib Dems have accused Theresa May of peddling “misinformation” about their opposition to the communications data bill. This is from a party spokesman.
We utterly reject the allegation that the blocking of the communications data bill has put lives at risk.
Police already have the ability to obtain data in urgent cases where lives are in danger.
The real problem is the availability of IP address data, where we have always accepted there is a need for action, and indeed publicly committed to legislation last year.
Frankly, it is woeful inaction on the part of the Home Office that solutions have not been identified to deal with this issue.
If failure to act on the IP matching problem has put lives at risk, the home secretary must explain why her department has not acted.
Theresa May is peddling misinformation in a vain attempt to get the so-called ‘snooper’s charter’ back on the table.
Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose the Tories’ obsessive intrusion into people’s lives.
Of course it is not just Ministers who get carried away, as the Guardian makes clear:
Boris Johnson spoke at a ConservativeHome fringe meeting at the conference last night. In the past these events have sometimes been quasi leadership bid rallies, notable for Johnson giving a speech laced with coded challenges to Cameron and his supporters lapping it up ecstatically.
But last night’s speech was - well, not quite dull, because no Johnson speech ever can can, but scrupulously loyal, and a bit pedestrian. If Johnson said anything interesting about Conserative politics, or how the party should be fighting the election, I missed it.
Still, he did perform one very funny routine. My friends at the Daily Mail, who never miss a trick, have written it up as “an extraordinary attack on Tories who have defected to UKIP, claiming they were the sort of people who injure themselves having sex with vacuum cleaners.”
Each to their own I suppose.
