Centuries of British freedoms being ‘broken’ by security state, says Sir Ken Macdonald
Received:: November 6, 2008 | Category:: intercept modernisation programme
Sir Ken, who has held the post for the past five years, said: “We need to take very great care not to fall into a way of life in which freedom’s back is broken by the relentless pressure of a security State. “Technology gives the State enormous powers of access to knowledge and information about each of us, and the ability to collect and store it at will.” At the last estimate, there were 4,285,000 cctv cameras in Britain.
Last week Miss Smith said the Government was examining ways to “collect and store’’ records of phone calls, emails and internet traffic.
Plans for the new snooper databases, which will be held by the Government or by phone companies, will be included in a draft Communications Data Bill, which will go out for consultation in the new year.
The new law was necessary to allow officials to keep track of potential terrorists who use social networks, such as Facebook, to plot attacks free from detection, she said.
Sir Ken warned Parliament to resist “special courts, vetted judges and all the other paraphernalia of paranoia” in the fight against terrorism.
That risked copying “the Guantanamo model…. which says that we cannot afford to give people their rights, that rights are too expensive because of the nature of the threats we are facing”.
He added: “It is difficult to see who will maintain a cool head if governments do not. Or who will protect our Constitution if governments unwittingly disarm it.”