Yet the plan the Tories have, removing encryption for all websites, is patently absurd as that leaves a backdoor open to not only people's personal data, but also their bank details.
Off Topic Bill Nicholson Arms
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Yes, of course it is impossible not to intrude, but we should not shy away from the hard decisions just because it's a grey area - and by hard decisions I mean as much when not to increase laws restricting freedom "for the greater good" as when to introduce them.
The speed limit is an interesting example. As mentioned, people continue to break speed limits anyway (perhaps because they think they won't get caught). However, it also cannot be argued that for example in a built up area, a speed limit of 20mph would save more lives than restricting it to 30mph. Frankly a speed limit of 10mph, enforced by average speed cameras on every corner would be even safer. I would even argue that 10mph speed limits in cities would save even more lives than just about any anti-terrorism legislation ever proposed. But whether we think about it this way or not, we have accepted that 30mph is a balance between safety and restricting ability to get places in any reasonable time. In other words we've offset convenience and commercial need against lives. And of course traffic accidents account for many multiples more death than terrorism (indeed in the news at the moment is the sad case of five people being killed in a single crash overnight).
If the only means of implementing the act are self-defeating in more ways that people can count, then the act itself is invalid as it comes down to cutting your nose off to spite your face - which just so happens to be a specialty of the Tories these days.Do not confuse the stupidity of a proposed means of
implementing an intrusive act, with the validity of the act.
Interesting interview with Lord West on Sky World News at lunchtime. When he was running the security for the UK, they uncovered a plot by Al Qaida to poison the water supply for North London. He said the the work was primarily done by GCHQ 'listening". He added that 100,000 people are likely to have died if the plot had succeeded. That's the kind of intrusion that I like.
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Cars at 30 mph are far more efficient than at 20 mph. A 20 mph speed limit certainly will mean less people are killed by cars in accidents. However, the additional pollution might actually kill more people in the long run. Has anyone walked around Brighton since the green party introduced a blanket 20 mph speed limit? The place noticeably stinks.
It would do no harm for them to put up an "information dashboard" on what
they are thwarting (number of attempts, worst case death toll if the attempt
had succeeded, how far down the line the attempt was thwarted etc) .
As long as they are not too specific, yes definitely.
I've done quite a lot of work on the London reservoirs when I worked in the UK and I can guess which one they were targeting. All of the larger ones out near Heathrow have pretty good security but one in particular, that serves much of North London, is an underground Victorian reservoir (cut, vaulted arches and covered),which would be quite easy to attack. The reservoir keepers house was sold off (Privatisation-watch me get HBIC started) so there is little or no security at night. When I was working there I though to myself this would make an easy terrorist target.
Was the plot to get the Governor of Flint, Michigan to run the London water supply? Sneaky.
It would do plenty of harm because you would be giving too much information to the enemy.
If you only told them what they already know it shouldn't do too much harm. However, I guess it might encourage other to try to see if they can succeed where others have failed. You would need to be very vague with the info handed out.
That prat Merson has just opened his gob and suggested the Man U should sign Harry Kane. I feel vey sad for him, I thought that he had got over his alcohol problem, it appears I thought wrong.
S
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The biggest problem with going public with successes is that the majority will have been prevented by information from covert sources, many times when the subsequent prevention actions taken themselves may have been clandestine. The 'enemy' in those cases may still be subject to ongoing investigation and revealing an otherwise anonymous success would likely imperil the source.
Lots of factors to consider....
I wouldn't mind MI5 going through my emails and tapping my phone and internet history provided they'd some kind of good reason to, and it was validated by a judge. As it is, I've no contacts with ISIS or the RA, I've made no kind of threatening messages to anyone, either online or irl and the most suspicious activity that I've conducted in the last year was the joint I smoked behind the changing rooms after a football game.
Yet still the Food Safety Authority, Gambling Commission, NHS Business Services and the Competiton And Markets Authority all have the ability, with no checks and balances (like a warrant), to read up on just what I've been looking up online. And considering that most of what I look up online is what I'm thinking at that particular moment, they've got a more or less perfect idea of whats going on inside my head at any given time.
**** Theresa May, **** the Government, **** the war on terror, **** ISIS and **** the rest of them too. We live on a beautiful planet, but in a ****ty world.
Yet still the Food Safety Authority, Gambling Commission, NHS Business Services and the Competiton And Markets Authority all have the ability, with no checks and balances (like a warrant), to read up on just what I've been looking up online. And considering that most of what I look up online is what I'm thinking at that particular moment, they've got a more or less perfect idea of whats going on inside my head at any given time.
**** Theresa May, **** the Government, **** the war on terror, **** ISIS and **** the rest of them too. We live on a beautiful planet, but in a ****ty world.
They could go through my posts as well providing they dont take any action about Spurlock incinerating his gardening waste.
I do not need to know they were targeting reservoirs, merely that one
attempt was made to do something that could have had affected thousands,
but was caught far from the dangerous stage.
Similarly if they tell us that they have thwarted 360 attempts in a year,
that also tells us the scale of the problem.