In December 2014, Sir Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Greater Manchester, warned that the UK was in danger of drifting toward a police state. Now, it seems his concerns are becoming a reality. Across the country, numerous measures suggest the UK might be heading down a troubling path. While it’s not as severe as places like Russia or North Korea, these new laws are a worrying step.
Permanent Mass Surveillance
The Snowden revelations in 2013 shook the world, leading the US Congress to ban bulk data collection. However, the UK is moving in the opposite direction. The revived Snoopers’ Charter aims to put everyone in the UK under permanent mass surveillance.
Proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May, the bill requires data providers to store everyone’s internet search history for a year. This data would be accessible to security services with minimal oversight. A White House review even concluded that bulk data collection doesn’t increase public safety.
The bill also threatens encryption. Companies like Apple and Google may have to supply unencrypted messages on demand, creating a backdoor that hackers could exploit. This would significantly weaken encryption in the UK, leaving your messages vulnerable.
State Hacking Of Smartphones
Imagine the government monitoring you anytime, anywhere. With the Snooper’s Charter, they could access your smartphone at any time. The UK government already has the power to hack computers globally and now wants to hack smartphones too.
The bill allows spies to install software on any phone, accessing messages, photos, and emails. Privacy campaigners warn that the government could track locations, listen to calls, and activate cameras and microphones. This means the end of privacy, with spy agencies recording citizens whenever they want.
Spying On Members Of Parliament
In March 2015, it was revealed that UK police had been spying on members of the government, mostly from the left-wing Labour party, including Jeremy Corbyn. This spying continued even after they became MPs.
These individuals were monitored by the police force’s domestic extremism unit, which also tracks terrorists. While the Wilson Doctrine was meant to protect MPs from surveillance, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that agencies like GCHQ could override it.
The new Snoopers’ Charter aims to formalize the doctrine, but it places the power to authorize spying on members of the government solely in the hands of the prime minister. This could lead to potential abuse in the future, jeopardizing the safeguards of parliamentary communications.
Criminalizing Journalism
When Edward Snowden’s revelations were published, The Guardian faced starkly different treatment than the Washington Post in the US. While the latter was honored with a Pulitzer, The Guardian was forced to destroy its own hard drives after a visit from government spies. Downing Street even threatened to shut the paper down.
Currently, The Guardian is under investigation by the MET Police’s counterterrorism taskforce. Journalists could face arrest, despite no evidence of wrongdoing. The National Union of Journalists sees this as an attack on press freedom, and some believe the investigation aims to deter journalists from covering security issues.
Leaked memos revealed that GCHQ considers all journalists a potential threat to national security, and this investigation seems determined to turn that claim into reality.
Hollowing Out Democracy
Democracy thrives when voters have a real choice. However, the UK government is fast-tracking plans that can be described as partisan. Independent commissions are set to redraw constituency boundaries, a necessary step due to population shifts.
However, a 2011 law requires boundary commissions to base new constituencies on the voting register rather than overall population figures. This disadvantages young people in rented accommodation, who are less likely to be registered, impacting Labour voters.
Voters must also now register individually instead of by household, potentially disenfranchising millions of young and poor voters. The Conservatives also aim to reduce the number of MPs by 50, which analysts believe would further benefit them over Labour.
Additionally, the Conservatives plan to clamp down on trade union funding to Labour, its primary source of funding. These changes indicate a concerted effort to push the Labour party permanently out of power.
Spying On And Manipulating Protestors
In 2012, a former UK activist discovered that undercover officers had infiltrated protest groups, starting long-term relationships with female activists. One officer was even the father of her son.
Officer Bob Lambert had gone undercover in a peaceful protest group, seduced her, and abandoned her after their child was born. He was paid by the London MET police to gather information on the woman he was seducing. Throughout the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s, hundreds of officers did the same thing. Ten women are now suing the police for their role in these manipulative operations.
These operations were not just historical; some occurred as recently as 2010.
Spying On And Manipulating Victims Of Crime
The Stephen Lawrence murder is infamous in British history. In 1993, 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racists. The police bungled the investigation, and it took until 2012 for a conviction, despite the killers’ names being public since 1997.
Instead of pursuing the killers, the MET Police spied on Stephen Lawrence’s mother, Doreen Lawrence, and the rest of the grieving family. The MET’s counterterrorism chief was involved, and officers infiltrated a group close to the Lawrence family, blocking further investigation into the murder. The police may have deliberately shielded and protected the killers.
Similarly, police participated in a cover-up of the Hillsborough Disaster, blaming fans for their own deaths to deflect blame from the officers on duty.
Arbitrary Removal Of Passports
Revoking citizenship is an extreme step, but in 2014, the UK government empowered Theresa May to strip naturalized British terror suspects of their passports without a jury or judicial oversight.
The law allows May to strip someone of British citizenship simply based on suspicion of terrorism. Minh Pham was stripped of his British citizenship under an older version of this law for suspected links to Al-Qaeda, which he denies. Consequently, his Vietnamese citizenship was also revoked, leaving him stateless.
Treating Ordinary Citizens As Terrorists
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act allows local councils to install hidden cameras, bug phones, and intercept electronic communications. In 2014, Scottish local councils used these powers to target everyone from dog walkers to underage teenagers using sunbeds.
In England and Wales, town halls accessed more electronic communications than GCHQ and MI6 combined, targeting ordinary citizens suspected of petty fraud. In 2008, half the councils in the UK used anti-terror powers to spy on people who threw their garbage out on the wrong day.
These powers, designed for exceptional circumstances like potential terror attacks, have instead been abused to treat ordinary citizens as terrorists.
Spying On And Removing Children
In February 2015, schools were legally required to prevent children from being radicalized, effectively forcing teachers to spy on their pupils. The government approved software designed to “help teachers spy on pupils’ potentially extremist online activity.”
By tracking “terrorist-related” search terms, schools aim to identify potentially radicalized teenagers. However, this can lead to innocent children being wrongly labeled, especially those researching topics like the Iraq War. The software itself is also vulnerable to malware exploitation.
The Family Division of the Judiciary plans to remove children from homes of those suspected of radicalizing them, even without proof. If courts consider you a possible extremist, they can take your kids away without question.
While the UK remains a freer society than many others, these trends are concerning. If the UK government continues down this path, it risks losing its claim as a legitimately “free” country.
What do you think about these measures? Leave your comment below!
