e-nsecure.net blog - Comments on IT security and Privacy or the lack thereof.
Rat's Blog -The Reverend Rat writes about London street life and technology
Duncan Drury - wired adventures in Tanzania & London
Dr. K's blog - Hacker, Author, Musician, Philosopher
David Mery - falsely arrested on the London Tube - you could be next.
James Hammerton
White Rose - a thorn in the side of Big Brother
Big Blunkett
Into The Machine - formerly "David Blunkett is an Arse" by Charlie Williams and Scribe
infinite ideas machine - Phil Booth
Louise Ferguson - City of Bits
Chris Lightfoot
Oblomovka - Danny O'Brien
Liberty Central
dropsafe - Alec Muffett
The Identity Corner - Stefan Brands
Kim Cameron - Microsoft's Identity Architect
Schneier on Security - Bruce Schneier
Politics of Privacy Blog - Andreas Busch
solarider blog
Richard Allan - former Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam
Boris Johnson Conservative MP for Henley
Craig Murray - former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, "outsourced torture" whistleblower
Howard Rheingold - SmartMobs
Global Guerrillas - John Robb
Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends
Vmyths - debunking computer security hype
Nick Leaton - Random Ramblings
The Periscope - Companion weblog to Euro-correspondent.com journalist network.
The Practical Nomad Blog Edward Hasbrouck on Privacy and Travel
Policeman's Blog
World Weary Detective
Martin Stabe
Longrider
B2fxxx - Ray Corrigan
Matt Sellers
Grits for Breakfast - Scott Henson in Texas
The Green Ribbon - Tom Griffin
Guido Fawkes blog - Parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy.
The Last Ditch - Tom Paine
Murky.org
The (e)State of Tim - Tim Hicks
Ilkley Against CCTV
Tim Worstall
Bill's Comment Page - Bill Cameron
The Society of Qualified Archivists
The Streeb-Greebling Diaries - Bob Mottram
Your Right To Know - Heather Brooke - Freedom off Information campaigning journalist
Ministry of Truth _ Unity's V for Vendetta styled blog.
Bloggerheads - Tim Ireland
W. David Stephenson blogs on homeland security et al.
EUrophobia - Nosemonkey
Blogzilla - Ian Brown
BlairWatch - Chronicling the demise of the New Labour Project
dreamfish - Robert Longstaff
Informaticopia - Rod Ward
War-on-Freedom
The Musings of Harry
Chicken Yoghurt - Justin McKeating
The Red Tape Chronicles - Bob Sullivan MSNBC
Campaign Against the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
Stop the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
Rob Wilton's esoterica
panGloss - Innovation, Technology and the Law
Arch Rights - Action on Rights for Children blog
Database Masterclass - frequently asked questions and answers about the several centralised national databases of children in the UK.
Shaphan
Moving On
Steve Moxon blog - former Home Office whistleblower and author.
Al-Muhajabah's Sundries - anglophile blog
Architectures of Control in Design - Dan Lockton
rabenhorst - Kai Billen
(mostly in German)
Nearly Perfect Privacy - Tiffany and Morpheus
Iain Dale's Diary - a popular Conservative political blog
Brit Watch - Public Surveillance in the UK - Web - Email - Databases - CCTV - Telephony - RFID - Banking - DNA
BLOGDIAL
MySecured.com - smart mobile phone forensics, information security, computer security and digital forensics by a couple of Australian researchers
Ralph Bendrath
Financial Cryptography - Ian Grigg et al.
UK Liberty - A blog on issues relating to liberty in the UK
Big Brother State - "a small act of resistance" to the "sustained and systematic attack on our personal freedom, privacy and legal system"
HosReport - "Crisis. Conspiraciones. Enigmas. Conflictos. Espionaje." - Carlos Eduardo Hos (in Spanish)
"Give 'em hell Pike!" - Frank Fisher
Corruption-free Anguilla - Good Governance and Corruption in Public Office Issues in the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla in the West Indies - Don Mitchell CBE QC
geeklawyer - intellectual property, civil liberties and the legal system
PJC Journal - I am not a number, I am a free Man - The Prisoner
Charlie's Diary - Charlie Stross
The Caucus House - blog of the Chicago International Model United Nations
Famous for 15 Megapixels
Postman Patel
The 4th Bomb: Tavistock Sq Daniel's 7:7 Revelations - Daniel Obachike
OurKingdom - part of OpenDemocracy - " will discuss Britain’s nations, institutions, constitution, administration, liberties, justice, peoples and media and their principles, identity and character"
Beau Bo D'Or blog by an increasingly famous digital political cartoonist.
Between Both Worlds - "Thoughts & Ideas that Reflect the Concerns of Our Conscious Evolution" - Kingsley Dennis
Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair - the rich Uzbek businessman and his shyster lawyers Schillings really made a huge counterproductive error in trying to censor the blogs of Tim Ireland, of all people.
Matt Wardman political blog analysis
Henry Porter on Liberty - a leading mainstream media commentator and opinion former who is doing more than most to help preserve our freedom and liberty.
HMRC is shite - "dedicated to the taxpayers of Britain, and the employees of the HMRC, who have to endure the monumental shambles that is Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC)."
Head of Legal - Carl Gardner a former legal advisor to the Government
The Landed Underclass - Voice of the Banana Republic of Great Britain
Henrik Alexandersson - Swedish blogger threatened with censorship by the Försvarets Radioanstalt (FRA), the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishement, their equivalent of the UK GCHQ or the US NSA.
World's First Fascist Democracy - blog with link to a Google map - "This map is an attempt to take a UK wide, geographical view, of both the public and the personal effect of State sponsored fear and distrust as seen through the twisted technological lens of petty officials and would be bureaucrats nationwide."
Blogoir - Charles Crawford - former UK Ambassodor to Poland etc.
No CCTV - The Campaign against CCTV
Barcode Nation - keeping two eyes on the database state.
Lords of the Blog - group blog by half a dozen or so Peers sitting in the House of Lords.
notes from the ubiquitous surveillance society - blog by Dr. David Murakami Wood, editor of the online academic journal Surveillance and Society
Justin Wylie's political blog
Panopticon blog - by Timothy Pitt-Payne and Anya Proops. Timothy Pitt-Payne is probably the leading legal expert on the UK's Freedom of Information Act law, often appearing on behlaf of the Information Commissioner's Office at the Information Tribunal.
Armed and Dangerous - Sex, software, politics, and firearms. Life’s simple pleasures… - by Open Source Software advocate Eric S. Raymond.
Georgetown Security Law Brief - group blog by the Georgetown Law Center on National Security and the Law , at Georgtown University, Washington D.C, USA.
Big Brother Watch - well connected with the mainstream media, this is a campaign blog by the TaxPayersAlliance, which thankfully does not seem to have spawned Yet Another Campaign Organisation as many Civil Liberties groups had feared.
Spy on Moseley - "Sparkbrook, Springfield, Washwood Heath and Bordesley Green. An MI5 Intelligence-gathering operation to spy on Muslim communities in Birmingham is taking liberties in every sense" - about 150 ANPR CCTV cameras funded by Home Office via the secretive Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM) section of ACPO.
FitWatch blog - keeps an eye on the activities of some of the controversial Police Forward Intelligence Teams, who supposedly only target "known troublemakers" for photo and video surveillance, at otherwise legal, peaceful protests and demonstrations.
They are off - Conservative New Clause 2
Mark Harper (Cons)
NC2 asks for an annual report to Parliament about what has and what has not been de-regulated.
NC 24 is an alternative renewal clause, Part 1 approval every 2 years
NC 7 is a 5 year "sunset clause"
David Howarth Lib Democrat, makes the point that these sunset clauses only affect the Bill/Act, but not any Orders passed by the LRR Act.
David Heath, Liberal Democrat,
Somerset & Frome
reminds everyone that vast amounts of supposedly "urgent" laegislation and regualtions are actually never used or even commenced
Andrew Miller Labour, Ellsemere Port & Neston, chairman of the Regulatory Select Committee
Does not prefer an annual report to Prliament, but wants more powers for investigation and reporting for his own Committee.
The Committee could report on the facts i.e. that a Gov Dept had only de-regulated a few items under the old 2001 Act, but not the reasons why the delays or lack ofprogress happened.
Some sympathy for a periodic Review, but not a "sunset clause".
Mark Harper - Conservative - - NC 24 may be more acceptable
Mark Harper - wants a confirmation of the verbal promise made by Jim Murphy anout a 5 year review.
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet office Minister
"a Minister of the Crown will report to the House no less than 5 years after the Act passes"
Pat McFadden's first "not appropriate to write this on the face of the Bill" .
Presumably there will be more of these.
Pat McFadden is rejecting NC7 sunset clause
Kenneth Clarke (Cons. former Chancellor etc.) - clarification on the reporting period promise "not more" or "not less" than 5 years ?
Pat McFadden - "within 5 years"
Andrew Love (Labour, Edmonton) served on the Regulatory Committee.
Whitehall culture is to create more regulation and law, rather than de-regulation.
Division i.e. a vote on New Clause 2, the annual report to Parliament of the sucesses or failures of this Bill.
This will probably take about 10 minutes or so.
NC2 vote:
Ayes: 210
Noes: 269
Point of Order - promise by Jim Murphy to produce a Code of Practice in good time for Report stage - unsurprisingly , given the Government's record on this sort of thing, thewre is no such Code of Practice available
Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative Shadow Solicitor General)
Lots of amendmends and cNew Clauses to do with various Procedures "negative" (vote against)and "affirmative" (vote for) and "super-affirmative" (votes in both the Houses of Commons and Lthe House of Lords)
There is also the "vetos" or similar for the Select Committees.
Remember that Committees are always packed with a Government majority.
rewsolutions (ie, votes
Jonathan Djanogly - if Committee issues a "veto", it is only a recommendation to the House of Commons, which can then be overturned by the inevitable Government majority in the Commons.
This is another promise made by Jim Murphy which has not appeared in the amendments.
Just looking through NC19 and am appalled at what a woolly piece of bullshit constitutional legislation it is.
Exactly which aspects of our constitution could not be considered a financial cost, an administrative inconvenience, an obstacle to efficiency, productivity or profitability; or a sanction, criminal or otherwise, for doing or not doing anything in the course of any activity?
That's a serious question. Are elections safe? Is Parliament safe? Is the Monarchy safe?
The Govt-chosen committee vetoes are virtually meaningless.
Jonathan Djanogly - is there to be just one single point of failure, i.e. a special Committee which deals with Orders under this Bill, which would not have the subject expertise of Departmental Select Committees ?
@ Dave Gould - it is as bad as it looks, and the Government "concessions" so far seem to be smoke and mirrors.
Andrew Miller, currently speaking, needed a spare pair of spectacles.
Since only Members of Parliament are allowed on the Benches, he had to impose on one of the very few of his Labour MP colleagues to nip over to the doorway and get them from an aide.
His idea that a "Ministerial Undertaking" has any real force in law or practice , rather than something written into the Bill, does not seem to be strong enough safeguard.
David Heath (LibDem): )paraphraseds):
If the Government gives an undertaking not to ever use powers in the Bill, then what should they be in the Bill in the first place ?
Kenneth Clarke (Cons")said in effect:
"Ministerial Undertaking" only bind an "honourable) Minister, or perhaps the Government which he is a member of. They do not bind future Governments.
Yet again, the former Minister Jim Murphy's "promises and undertakings" are not belived by the Opposition.
This "live blogging" of the Parliament TV feed, is a frustrating experience.
David Heath (Liberal Democrat) - There is no Parliamentary Veto in this Group of Amendments, it is more of a Parliamentary Caveat.
Government does not appear to accept the recommendations of the Procedure Committee and the Regulatory Committee.
@wtwu - You are doing well, I am finding the debate it quite difficult to follow. Having a running commentary helps me understand
@wtwu - You are doing well, I am finding the debate it quite difficult to follow. Having a running commentary helps me understand
David Heath (Liberal Democrat) defends his idea of a "controversy" test involving 10% of MPs of at least 2 Parties, but the Conservatives are not really going for it, in case it sets a precedent for all other prrocedures, not just this"fasttrack" LRRB one.
He makes the valid point that Early Day Motions, even those signed by over half the mebers of the House of Commons are just that, and do not lead to a proper Debate on an issue.
At a guess this Liberal Democrat amendment will not pass.
David Heath (Liberal Democrat) will seek to divide the House i.e. call for a vote on his New CLause 14
I did wonder what was stopping them simply announcing an amendment to appease those concerned but never bringing it before the House.
LRRB always was a grab for totalitarian power and it looks like they're going to get away with it.
Our Parliament has always been woefully inadequate in its capacity to hold the executive to account.
I shall be interested to find out what the Queen has to say about it.
Tony Wright, (Labour - Cannock Chase) Chairman of the Public Affairs Committee, who was earlier today on the news regarding the Loans for Peerages Police investigation, is talking about the theory of Select Committees, and the practical reality, taking up Andrew Miller's comment that, despite all the talk about giving powers to Select Committees, not all the Conservative Members have been turning up for duty on his Committee.
Is he for or against the "veto of the veto of the veto" ?
There should be an effective , if qualified, veto.
All this Parliamentary Procedure is of theoretical interest, however, this is all burning up Parliamentary time.
Therei are only about two and a half hours left to consider all the remaining amendments.
Greg Knight (Conservative Yorkshire East) - chairman of the Procedure Committee, read out the evidence that Jim Murphy gave to his Commuttee, promising a Veto, a full Veto.
Hilary Armstrong, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the former Government Chief Whip has just weasled in, and said that the Qualified Veto now proposed, rather than the Full Veto which Jim Murphy promised so often does is somehow ok, because of yesterday's vote which slightly reduced the scope of the Powers i,e, New Clause 19.
Jim Knight does not agree.
Alison Seaback (Labour Plymouth Devonport) makes the point that there should be a 2 year restriction on the re-submission of LRR Orders which are identical or slightly dressed up, once they have been Vetoed
I've been try to follow the debate on Parliament TV. However I've just lost sound. I think the microphones have been turned off.
Sound is back again
BBC Parliament sound is ok
Another half hour gone, and the question of Select Committee Vetoes is still not resolved.
David Howarth (Liberal Democrat for Cambridge, also a Cambridge University academic lawyer)
has just said that one of the changes which was made yesterday was the prevention of self-modification, and modification of the Human Rights Act, i.e. New Clause 26 !
Where exactly did this get passed ??
The proceedings of yesterday's debate might be of interest
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmbills/141/rs1411505.553-557.html
It shows what has happened so far
I have no idea when NC26 got passed - maybe after the debate last night or some commitee?
Maybe the Gov't decided to add NC26 afterall.....
Also noticed that "Line 4, leave out ‘with or without changes’." was negatived on division but "Line 4, leave out ‘with or without changes’ and insert ‘either without changes or with such changes as are necessary to take into acount any development in the law since the time the recommendations were made.’."
I'm dissapointed in Mr Heath & Mr Howarth who seem to have proposed the second of these two but not the first. (I'm reading this right aren't I?!)
It seems that it was not debated but "nodded through" right at the very end !!
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060515/debtext/60515-0079.htm
Aaaaaargh !!!
Pat McFadden (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Cabinet Office) is not convincing Kenneth Clarke about this wretchedly complicated Select Committee Veto stuff.
Pat McFadden is rejecting the Liberal Democrat NC 14 and for the two year rule.
"I understand the reasoning behind these amendments ... however"
Repeat of yesterday - the Labour Party MPs vibrating pagers have gone off again, whilst Pat McFadden has been speaking, and both he and someone else in view have reached into their pockets to turn them off.
Presumably, the lobby fodder is being summoned electronically - a vote is probably due in say, the next, 15 minutes.
N.B. if these are normal, Alphanumeric Message Pagers from BT, these unencrypted messages are almost trivially intercepted and read by anyone with a radio scanner, anywhere in the UK, and some FLEX or POCSAG protocol decoding software from off the internet.
Division (i.e. a vote) on the Conservative's New Clause 5
New Clause 5 vote
Ayes: 205
Noes: 256
Division (vote) on the Liberal Democrat New Clause 14
New Clause 14
Ayes: 85
Noes: 259
David Heath (Liberal Democrat) raises New Clause 15
"Sub-delegated legislative functions"
which tries to restrict the power of Ministers under the Bill, to delegate the Order powers to any other person
This tries to close the loophole whereby an Order made by an Minister has to go through the (inadequate) safeguards in the Bill i.e. the Committee Vetoes etc., but if a Minister delegates the Order making power to someone else e.g. to a Quango or a petty official etc. they are not subject to even those inadequate safeguards.
Oliver Heald (Conservative) - says he will support NC 15
The Minister Pat McFadden looks like he is going to reject this NC15, and the amendments. to it.
Pat McFadden is trying to reassure Mark Fisher(Labour) about the Delegation of Order making powers, which may enable arbitrary sub-delegation to other people.
This is impossible to do properly in the last 5 minutes before the Guillotine deadline at 9pm
Point of Order by Jim Knight (Conservative) the chairman of the Procedures Committee - sought confirmation from the Speaker that Parts 2 and 3 of this very important Bill will not receive any Parliamentary scrutiny at all during this Report stage, because of the Government's guillotine.
The Deputy Speaker confirned that this looked very likely
It is utterly disgraceful that the potentially massive impact of these other parts of the BIll have not been debated:
>- Part 2 Regulators
which includes the worldwide exyent which was refered to yesterday
Division on the Liberal Democrat New Clause 15
NC 15
Ayes : 200
Noes: 259
Conservative "Eurosceptic" New Clause 17, which has not been debated is now being voted on:
Will this be the last vote on this Bill at Report stage in the Commons ?
"Lock the doors" - the lobby fodder are all in the Chamber / voting Lobbies.
New Clause 17 must surely be defeated ?
New Clause 17
Ayes: 136
Noes: 318
Government Amendments 10 to 45
just got nodded through with no vote
Division on Amendment a) to Government Amendment 46 is being voted on.
This has not been properly debated either !
Amendment a) to Government Amendment 46
Ayes: 200
Noes: 258
The Amendment 46 nodded through without a vote.
Remaining Government Amendments nodded through, without a vote.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Hilary Armstrong is now winding up the Third Reading, thanking various people.
Watching these debates in the Commons where our freedoms are legislated away by our Members of Parliament, without proper detailed scrutiny or debate is really depressing.
@wtwu Yes I entirely agree
Oliver Heald - this Bill is not good enough,
Hopefully the Conservatives will vote against the Third Reading
The most depressing thing for me is how no one is making the points I see as so simple. Not, of course, making a logical irrefutable debate would make a difference as most the people voting haven't even read the bill, never mind listened to all the debate and given it careful consideration.
So we now live in a democracy only at the whim of ministers? Is it really that bad? If so it's shocking that they couldn't even debate most of it.
Could these powers be used to abolish elections and make Tony PM for life for example? Or delegate abolishing health and safety laws to vested interests? Is there any credible democratic oversight left?
David Heath (liberal Democrats) also said it was marginnally improved from the dangerous initial version.
Hopefully the Liberal Democrats will also vote against it at Third Reading.
The Third Reading Division is now underway.
House of Commons Third Reading of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
Ayes: 259
Noes: 213
Now the Bill goes off to the House of Lords - will they "improve" it at all ?
This is precisely the sort of thing that makes me despair. In a court of law you get a verdict only if the decision is beyond reasonable doubt. Surely no one could be so credulous as to not have any doubts about this potentially incredibly dangerous piece of legislation?
More to the point, who are the Labour MPs voting for this thing rallying behind? They must know that Blair's a spent force - they surely can't be that stupid?
Good question! Who are they supporting? The Bill (under its guise of being a deregulatory Bill for business) was backed from the start by both Brown and Blair. The original Bill was to be part of a new philosophy of a 'risk-based approach to business: ie trust them more, and regulate them less. This was originally thought up by Brown, I think.
Makes you wonder what happened in between that Bill and this one. The civil servants got it accidentally wrong, is what I heard.
What if the House of Lords block provisions made under LRRB? Can they be overriden as usual?