diaTribe » anti http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp The diaTribe blog is our occasional take on life, the universe and everything. Observations on current affairs, the environment, politics, humour and music/gig reviews. Travel diary and extreme sports stories, along with the usual rants/raves are also chucked in for good measure. Sat, 07 Feb 2026 19:21:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Farewell Liberty – It was nice knowing you http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/06/12/farewell_liberty_it_was_nice_knowing_you/ http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/06/12/farewell_liberty_it_was_nice_knowing_you/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:54:00 +0000 Phil http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/06/farewell_liberty_it_was_nice_knowing_you/ ... more »

]]>

No real surprise that last night the government managed to push it’s new anti-terror legislation through Parliament, albeit with the narrowest of margins.

Despite the fact that this bill is likely to be killed before it reaches the statute books (either in the house of Lords unless the government invokes the parliament act, or in the EU human rights commission, which the government can’t influence too much), I can’t help but wonder what the hell the Whitehall worms are thinking.

More ... »]]> http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/06/12/farewell_liberty_it_was_nice_knowing_you/feed/ 0 Rant: Terrorism Power Abuses – Off and Running http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/04/11/rant_terrorism_power_abuses_off_and_running/ http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/04/11/rant_terrorism_power_abuses_off_and_running/#comments Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:03:00 +0000 Phil http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/04/rant_terrorism_power_abuses_off_and_running/ ... more »

]]>

News this week that Poole council has used legislation designed to combat terrorism, to spy on a family suspected of trying to cheat the school catchment system is the first publicly reported abuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), but I’m sure it won’t be the last…

Civil rights groups such as Liberty (rightly it now appears) have expressed concerns about these powers since the tabloid-led knee-jerk reaction policy frenzy, which followed 9/11 and 7/7 which created acts such as RIPA. They argued that existing anti-terrorist legislation already in place in the UK since the early 1970′s to combat terrorist attacks by IRA cells were still relevant enough to be used to deal with the new threat of Islamic extremism. There was therefore no need to introduce further legislation.

More ... »]]> http://bandannaclub.com/blogwp/2008/04/11/rant_terrorism_power_abuses_off_and_running/feed/ 0