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

[gominokouhai]

Thank you for trying.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad to hear you have been involved in this. It makes me feel slightly less angry with the party leadership to know that this sort of consultation is at least going on, and of course also very reassured to hear about the sort of people who are being consulted and the things they (including you of course!) have been saying. Very well done on helping to make the case, and let's fervently hope that it does some good.

[stephensliberaljournal.blogspot.com]

I didn't make the list for "the soul" but then my phone went dead just at the point that I wanted and felt I was able to interject ;-)

SPG

[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.

[pseudomonas]

I'm actually slightly surprised (and heartened) quite how much unanimity there was among Us Lot that "we'll extend the scope but with extra safeguards" is a Bad Idea. And the willingness to tell them that they'd been mis-informed.

[oneexwidow.blogspot.com]

But, but... Don't they read the Lib Dem blogosphere? Haven't they seen the many expositions of the of the arguments why LIBERAL Democrats don't like what appears to be about to be proposed?

Don't they understand that when there is near unaminous outrage something is seriously wrong?

Hope (like you) that the combined efforts of the conference callers gets through!

[rhythmaning]

Haven't you seen "The Thick Of It"? Surely every other word used by the Spads was a swear word? ;)

Actually, Ms. Featherstone swore when we were conversing with me yesterday - not at me, mind, and she was very contrite...!

Thanks for sharing this, and for forcefully lingering the points across.

Thinking of it, I'm surprised there wasn't more swearing...!

Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

So pleased to hear that someone has the contacts to at least try to stop this. A bottle of Scotland's finest will come your way if you're instrumental in stopping this latest horror.

Bruce Ryan IT mac DIT com

[sir_guinglain]

Congratulations. Unlike some people, I don't think this is already a lost cause, and I think you are proving it.

[djm4]

I do feel a bit guilty about this. I had a meeting with Tom Brake, Julian Huppert and at least one Special Advisor about this at conference, but I wasn't sure beforehand what the meeting would focus on and went in briefed with all of the technical problems and none of the civil liberties ones. On the other hand, I sort of expected Tom and Julian to be all over those so I wouldn't have to be. I'm afraid that at the time I did sort of buy the line that (where technically feasible) this was a straightforward extension of what we routinely and unpromblematically did with phone data at the moment, and I should have red-flagged that, rather than going 'so you're expecting ISPs to be able to read the contents of HTTPS traffic then, are you? Has anyone told the banks?'

It's possible, then, that they misjudged the level of outrage that this was going to generate. My main excuse is that I was distracted by the passing of the Welfare Reform Act.

[priggy.wordpress.com]

How did this conference call come about?