Britannia Radio

Government snooping: update

Dear A, Yesterday, the government set out its new plans for the year ahead in the Queen’s Speech. [1] It’s just what we feared: they want new powers to invade our privacy. They plan to collect and keep information on all of us about who we call, text and email, and which websites we visit. And they won’t need a warrant or reason. [2] There’s still time to stop them. If enough of us work together, we can get these plans scrapped. We can build a huge movement to stand up for our freedom and our right to privacy as law-abiding British citizens. Last year, hundreds of thousands of people worked together until we stopped the government’s plan to sell off England’s woodlands. [3] We can do it again - but we need big numbers. Can you forward this email to people you know and ask them to sign the petition? https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-snooping-plan Last week, David Cameron and Nick Clegg took a real pounding in local elections up and down the country. Now lots of their MPs are squabbling about what the government should do to try to win back voters. [4] Our civil liberties have taken a battering in recent years from politicians of all backgrounds. Now it’s time to for us to push back. If hundreds of thousands of us demand that politicians protect our freedoms instead of grabbing more power, they’ll see the tide is turning. It’s time to tear up the Big Brother plans - let’s get started today. Help build a massive people-powered petition to protect our freedoms by forwarding this email to your friends, or quickly share it on Facebook and Twitter: Share on Facebook: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-government-snooping-facebook Share on Twitter: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-government-snooping-twitter Thanks for being involved, PS: The government promised they would stand up for our freedoms. Now it seems they want to chip away at them. Let’s build a massive petition to protect our privacy and stand up for our rights. Can you ask more people to sign it by forwarding this email? https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-snooping-plan NOTES [1] From official Parliament website - "The Queen's Speech is delivered by the Queen from the Throne in the House of Lords, in the presence of Members of both Houses. Although the Queen reads the Speech, the content is entirely drawn up by the Government and approved by the Cabinet. It contains an outline of the Government's policies and proposed new legislation for the new parliamentary session."http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/occasions/stateopening/ See also BBC: Queen's Speech 2012 at-a-glance http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17988236 [2] Draft Communications Bill paper issued by government: http://www.dehavilland.co.uk/PoliticalUploads/Draft_Communications_Data_Bill.pdf Telegraph: Queen's Speech 'Surveillance of the entire nation' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9255201/Queens-Speech-Surveillance-of-the-entire-nation.html [3] 38 Degrees blog: Victory! Government scraps plans to sell our forests https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/forests-victory-blog [4] Guardian: Battered coalition partners begin to doubt strategy of compromise http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/05/nick-clegg-david-cameron-election?intcmp=239