Cameron talks the talk on ID cards, RIPA, data, etc

Posted: Fri 26 Jun 2009 7 49 am

David Cameron has accused Labour of creating a "control state" and vowed a Tory government would hand power back to voters with a new "right to data".

The Tory leader said if his party won power it would publish information in 20 key areas in its first year.

This would range from crime statistics, schools' performance and hospitals to road traffic data.

Labour and the Lib Dems have pledged to increase access to data and limit the powers of the state.

But in a speech at Imperial College in London, Mr Cameron accused Labour of eroding freedoms.

He said a future Conservative government would change the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which has been dubbed a "snooper's charter" by critics.

Referring to it as "the grim Ripa" he criticised its use by one council to "spy" on a family to check they lived in the right school catchment area.
And he said it would reconsider the use of stop and search powers under terrorism laws, which he said was used more than 120,000 times last year - a threefold increase on the previous year.

He also confirmed that a Conservative government would review the extradition treaty between the United Kingdom and the US and strengthen the right to trial by jury.

He said Labour had started off with "liberal intentions" but they had been "crushed, twisted and lost" by the "overwhelming dominance of political authoritarians".

"Today we are in danger of living in a control state," he said.

"Almost a million innocent citizens are caught in the web of the biggest DNA database in the world - larger than that of any dictatorship.

"Hundreds of shadowy powers allow officials to force their way past your front door.

"And soon we will be forced to surrender our fingerprints, eye scans and personal information to intrusive compulsory ID cards."

snip

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8118179.stm

Encouraging.

Let's hope he follows though.

Posted: Fri 26 Jun 2009 9 01 am

As you say. He is making all the right noises.

I don't think the Conservative record, where failed promises are concerned, is anything like as black as Labour's. So we may have hope.

Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 2902

Bestbear wrote:

As you say. He is making all the right noises.

I don't think the Conservative record, where failed promises are concerned, is anything like as black as Labour's. So we may have hope.

Not as black as Labour, but not as white as the driven snow either.

We always have hope, but we don't have much more than that.