The former chief of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington, has warned that the UK risks becoming a police state (The Daily Telegraph, "Spy chief: We risk a police state").  In the interview, she accuses ministers of interfering with people's privacy and playing straight into the hands of terrorists.

This is a theme that I've returned to on numerous occasions over the last few months: that the UK Government has used (and, I believe, mainipulated) the terrorist "threat" to force through draconian measures that threaten out civil liberties and right to privacy.  From extended detention periods, to the increased databases held about (and following the Coroners bill, increasingly joined together), the general drift is to a situation where the state has uprecedented access to out communications and other aspects of out private life.Rimmington says

Over at his blog Heresy Corner, the Heresiarch has an excellent overview of the continual erosion of our civil liberties (Remember what he said about "British liberty"?).

The article is framed over a series of points made by Gordon Brown in a speech delivered shortly after he took office as Prime Minister.

Poor old Jacqui Smith!  The Home Secretary is currently embroiled in controversy concerning her expenses claim for here "second home" (which turns out to be the home she lives in.  Turns out of course that her "main home" is a room in her sister's house (BBC News "Smith asked to explain expenses".

I've got no opinion as to her guilt or innocence here, but the amusing thing in this report is that it suggests she was turned in by her neighbours:

The UK Government's plans to assemble a joined up database state appear to be drawing closer.  In the rather innocuous sounding Coroners and Justice Bill Part 8 - Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) lies an interesting clause, 152, in which the government empowers itself to authorise largely unlimited data sharing.

The bill's summary is as follows (my emphasis - at least it flags up the change that interests me):

Privacy International have issued a report on how the Coroners and Justice Bill Part 8 - Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) will impact on data protection in the UK, and it makes for depressing reading.

Clause 152 of the Bill will permit an almost limitless range of data sharing pportunities both within government and between commercial organisations[...]

An interesting report on the BBC website on the use and abuse of RIPA.  It would appear that local councils are always ready to use RIPA to keep an eye on their citizens.

Figures obtained by BBC Radio Lincolnshire show that local councils have used covert surveillance authorisations 217 times in the last three years.

The BBC reports that the upcoming ContactPoint database which is planned (at a cost of £224 million) to contain contact details of all kids under 18 years old in England is expected to be accessible to 390,000 users.  I guess more still when it gets lost in the post or left on a train.  The database will

hold the name, address, parents' contact details, date of birth, school and doctor of every child in England.

A recurring theme in this blog is not just that the Government seems determined to trample over the data protection rights of the UK population, but that they are singularly inept at ensuring that the state machinery treats various data sources in a careful and secure manner.

From databases left on trains, to stolen laptops contaning databases of personal data, I (and I guess many others) view Wacky Jacqui's upcoming Uber-database that will be made possible by a combination of databases (including the vile IMP comms database and that of the ridiculous ID card scheme) using the "interesting" clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill Part 8 - Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29).  This empowers Ministers to direct the linkage of diferent databases.

So, it seems the old farts at the Met don't want kids to have much fun these days.  Apparently, every live music event needs to be "risk assessed", which involves completing a form 696, while afterwards you need to complete a form 696A. It's claimed that

Sunny Hundal writes in the Guardian's "Comment is free" about his experiences.  Before he and other fun-lovers could get into the venue, a variety information were gathered, with no indication of why the data were collected, nor how long it would be held for.

Now that President Obama's in the White House, he's rolling out changes - closing Guantanamo Bay, permitting Federal funding for agencies that publicise abortion, and now enabling Federal funding for stem cell research.

Perhaps related to the thaw in stem cell research, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved a proposal aimed at investigating the use of embryonic stem cell therapy in spinal injury (BBC News).  The proposal, from Geron Corp., has been approved.

The Times reports that the Home Office has adopted a plan to allow British police to hack into people's personal computers without a warrant.

If true, this is a pretty shocking extension to investigative powers.  Apparently it was made possible by an amendment to the Compter Misuse Act 1990 - the proposals included breaking into a suspect's house to install keyloggers and sending emails bearing malware that allows remote access to a PC.

News reports on the BBC somewhat precede April 1st.  Apparently the Scottish National Party want an airbase in Scotland  to be used as a Scottish spaceport.

The party's Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, wants Virgin Galactic to use RAF Lossiemouth in his constituency as a base for space tourism.  

The Guardian yesterday reported that the UK Culture Secretary plans to introduce a cinema-style "age-rating" for websites.  He's apparently going to contact Barack Obama once he's got up and running in the White House to try and set up some form of web site certification.  Not being one to set his sights too high, the "plan" is to involve only English language sites, but to compel ISPs to provide packages to provide the means to block unrated sites.

I presume such packages would be OS-independent, and an optional add-on.  Of course a number of likely problems loom over the horizon, including the scale of the internet.  How many web sites are there out there?  Back in February 2007, this question was asked at Boutell.com, and the answer was " more than 108 million".  Goodness knows how accurate that estimate is, and how the number may have increased since then!   The same site estimates the number of web pages in February 2007 to be in excess of 29.7 billion.

The BBC reports that Stalin has been voted into third place in a poll for the greatest Russian, held by a Russian TV station.

Never mind that he was born in Gori in Georgia! (You may recall Gori from the Russian military action in 2008).  Anyway, the result is a little astonishing, given his three decade reign of terror in which millions of Soviet citizens died.  His claim to greatness (other than being a hugely important figure in the 20th century) is presumably his reputation as the person who led the Soviet Union to victory over Nazi Germany.  As the BBC says:

The Guardian has a front page report updating the status of the Government's proposals to monitor all UK communications (the "Interception Modernisation Programme" or IMP).  This the proposal to record the names and addresses of all communications, but not (at this stage) the contents of the communications.  This execrable plan is estimated to run in at about £12 billion, a sum which you would think the Government would quail at, in the present financial circumstances.

Bizarrely, considering the database is supposed to be vital for  national security, one proposal is that it be run by private industry.  Apparently this is under the illusion that privatised work will be more cost-effective than that run by Govenment.  Ho hum.

Just picked this up via the Open Rights Group website.  Tom Watson MP has a blog and has solicited opinions on his colleague Andy Burhnam's Big Idea - that voluntary age rating of internet sites is a practical solution to the perceived problem of nasty websites being inflicted on unsuspecting kiddies.

A quick squizz through his blog suggests this blog posting has generated a larger number of comments than any others - mind you, even his worst-commented articles do better than most of mine in that regard :-( 

The Sunday Times reports that our authoritarian Home Secretary's plans to prevent leaks from the companies working on implemented the expensive and unnecessary ID card scheme has itself been leaked.

What's particularly draconian is that it seems the desire is to implement a system whereby workers at these companies may have their homes searched without needing  a search warrant.

After the Home Secretary announced that the Intercept Modernisation Programme (IMP) was not going to be included in the Queen's Speech, but that it was to be the subject of a public consultation, the Home Office has replied to the Open Rights Group's August 2008 FOI request  for information about the proposed scheme for spying into all our communications. 

Well, unsurprisingly, they have clammed up almost entirely.  The pdf response is here; the ORG article is here; one of the documents supplied is here.  Of course, any political moves with any kind of claim to be associated with national security can probably claim to be exempt from the FOI act.  It's to be hoped that the ORG will continue chasing the information in the run upto the publict consultation exercise our increasingly authoritarian Home Secretary will actually emark on in the New Year.

Well, I have to confess that I have some sympathy with this Iraqi journalist.  One might suspect Bush was lucky they were only shoes, after the mayhem he wreaked on the Middle East.

 [video:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9uIj0YvDBKE 425x340]

The Register reports that a senior Vodafone network architect has be recruited by the Home Secretary to draw up proposals for the Interception Modernisation Program (IMP).

Tim Hayward, erstwhile senior programme manager at the UK's second largest mobile operator, was appointed IMP director in August. While at Vodafone he was responsible for 3G network architecture, according to careers information posted on the web.