I've Just Got Off The Phone After a Conference Call With the Office of the DPM

[miss_s_b]

... which started politely, quickly degenerated into everybody shouting at each other, and ended up with everybody sounding very subdued.

The Spads did start by trying to defend the proposal; by the end of the conversation, once many many people had explained the technical, logistical, political and financial problems with the proposal, along with the objections on principle, they were saying "well if you're right about what this entails, we won't wear it". And I'm afraid that when one of the them used the phrase "terrorists and paedophiles" in an attempt at justifying this intrusion into everybody's life the F-word rose unbidden to my lips and I didn't manage to stop it coming out. Hopefully enough other people were shouting at that point that it didn't offend too many folk...

I'm not much mollified; I have some reassurance that we've got through to the leadership (or at least, the leadership's minions) this time, but I still don't think they get what the problem is and why everybody is so upset, and I have no confidence whatsoever that this won't happen again... But I think they want to know what the problem is and how to stop this happening again. I don't feel ignored any more. One of the Spads in particular seemed very keen to keep on engaging. So some progress, but I don't know if it's enough progress.

One thing I do feel confident of: the soul of this party is very much alive in people like Jenny Jones and Alex Wilcock and Zoe O'Connell and Richard Flowers and a whole bunch of Marks, all of whom did a lot better than I did at remaining calm and making cogent points and not swearing.

Comments

[ginasketch]

Ugh. This whole thing is terrifying.

Also, fail to the people going "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about"

Yeah, until they start deciding that certain things you do are wrong.

[gwenhwyfaer]

I think the best antidote to such people is asking if they want to put a webcam in their bathroom.

[lizw]

I always tell them to remember that they are legislating not only for what their Government can do, but for what their opponents will be able to do in five or ten or fifteen years' time.

[purplecthulhu]

This assumes that everything works properly. It usually doesn't, so that those with nothing tonide do ave much to fear. Politicians always seem to think systems work perfectly, are ever abused, and never have fragile failure modes. They need to get into the real world more. A lot more.

[drunkwriter]

This.

Do I do or say anything online that I'm particularly ashamed of? Well, yes. But on a legal basis? No.

But in this ever-changing world in which we live in... who knows what behaviour will be proscribed in five years time?

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed. Like all those people who had their phones hacked or who have had information sold to the media by the Police. Or the bloke that got bundled off and interrogated because he happened to have the same name as a wanted terrorist.

Liberal Neil.