The Spectator

The prying game

Theresa May’s Investigatory Powers Bill makes pitifully little effort to define when heavy surveillance powers may or may not be used

issue 05 March 2016

One of the marks of a good Home Secretary is a healthy wariness of those in authority who come begging for ever-greater powers. The former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke failed on that score. Just over a decade ago, the police persuaded him that they needed the freedom to lock up terror suspects for 90 days without trial.

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