“Snooper’s charter will cost YOU £2bn,” screams the Daily Mail‘s headline this morning. The Times goes with the slightly more sober “New law on snooping puts Tories in turmoil”, while the Guardian‘s angle is “Lib Dems threaten rebellion over plans to extend email and phone call surveillance”.
Yes, today was another morning of almost universally bad headlines for the coalition, this time over plans to expand the type of communications data stored by telephone and internet providers. Under the proposals, internet service providers would retain details of every phone call, email and website visit for at least a year.
While the government is adamant that this will not mean access to the content of messages, merely to data about them, there are question marks over where the line will be. Moreover, it is a significant ramping up of state power from a coalition led by two men who both promised to tackle excessive surveillance while in opposition.
According to the Guardian, senior Liberal Democrats are threatening to rebel, and are seeking clarification from Nick Clegg’s office over whether the legislation would allow the intelligence services to access the content of communications without a warrant from the Home Secretary. “No expert I’ve ever spoken to can see how this could possibly be done without great expense and without allowing access to the actual message that was sent,” said Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem MP for Cambridge.
Meanwhile, the Times (£) quotes several Conservatives taking issue with the plans. Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested that David Cameron was being hypocritical, and warned of the possible international ramifications: “The government ought to remember why it favoured liberty in opposition. The powers it creates may in future be used by less benevolent administrations.” David Davis said it was “an unnecessary extension of the ability of the State to snoop on ordinary people”, while Dominic Raab warned of the risk of fraud.
The Home Secretary Theresa May is out defending the proposal this morning, writing in the Sun that it will help to tackle organised crime and terrorism (“Whole paedophile rings, criminal conspiracies and terrorist plots can then be smashed.”).
But as the raft of negative front pages and comment pieces shows, this is another media battle that the coalition is losing. Yesterday, I blogged on reports that Tory MPs are frustrated that government policies are not being communicated properly to voters. Today, as ministers fail to articulate an effective response to the Information Commissioner’s comment (contained in a previously restricted briefing note) that “the case for the retention of this data still needs to be made”, that worry seems justified.
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