MI5 will get new powers to bug MPs

[struggle4progress]

Furious cabinet revolt as Blair gives green light for security services to spy on elected representatives

By Francis Elliott, Whitehall Editor
Published: 15 January 2006

Tony Blair is preparing to scrap a 40-year ban on tapping MPs' telephones, despite fierce Cabinet opposition, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

He is expected to formally announce to the Commons within weeks that MPs can no longer be sure that the security services and others will not intercept their communications.

Until now, successive administrations have pledged that there should be no tapping "whatsoever" of MPs' phones, and that they would be told if it was necessary to breach the ban.

But that convention - known as the Wilson Doctrine, after Harold Wilson, the prime minister who introduced it - is to be abandoned in an expansion of MI5 powers following the London bombings ...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article338691.ece

Cuz ya just never know when the MPs might start bombing the countryside ...

[Eric J in MN]

1. Why can't parliament do anything about this? (nt)

nt

[mazzarro]

2. Big Brother Is Formally Introduced

Next stop USA!

[Flabbergasted]

4. Already here

[Selteri]

3. Yes, I'm sure the MPs who don't agree with Tony Blair are supporting

terroists... just like I'm sure that peaceful protesters, CNN reporters and other peaceful or people trying to serve their country in their own way are dangerous enough to need to be spied upon.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Now Watch Parliament Sit Up And Beg, Just Like Our Congress

It's amazing what a little blackmail can do.

[Rose Siding]

6. Oh, yeah, THAT'S the guy to run the UN

:cry:

[savemefromdumbya]

7. I've just emailed all Labour MPs

also contacting my old constituency - this is outrageous. blair won't get away with this. It will never get through the House of Lords.

[autorank]

8. The Independent: Blair gives green light to spy MP's phones

BLAIR has gone COMPLETELY MAD. That is the only conclusion one can draw from this. He's over the edge and zooming down head first. What on earth has possessed him? Oh, I know. The Labour lackeys re selected him as Prime Minister even after torture revelations, blow back and massive lying on WMD to get England into Iraq. He figured, "I can do anything I want...I'm T..T..T..Tony!"

I'm sure there will be Labour quislings who come out and say, "Oh, the opposition is so dreadful.




http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article338691.ece

MI5 will get new powers to bug MPs

Furious cabinet revolt as Blair gives green light for security services to spy on elected representatives

By Francis Elliott, Whitehall Editor
Published: 15 January 2006

Tony Blair is preparing to scrap a 40-year ban on tapping MPs' telephones, despite fierce Cabinet opposition, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

He is expected to formally announce to the Commons within weeks that MPs can no longer be sure that the security services and others will not intercept their communications.

Until now, successive administrations have pledged that there should be no tapping "whatsoever" of MPs' phones, and that they would be told if it was necessary to breach the ban.

[aquart]

9. They knew what he was and re-installed him.

I'm incredibly glad it's them he's turning the screws on.

If only Bush were spying on Congress (yes, I know he is. But they haven't figured it out.)maybe we could get our fucking impeachment.

[autorank]

15. I agree w/you on Labour--they have CLEAN elections for the most part.

The British Labour Party HAS NO EXCUSE. Hell, the Conservatives have more of a excuse as does any British person who voted against Blair.

Labour is pathetic, they are worse that the worst. They're finished soon. A senior British military man said Blair should be impeached for his role in Iraq; another said that the troops in Iraq are vulnerable to being run over by a massive insurrection. Blair is a fool.

[ShockediSay]

10. I predict an upsurge in cell phone usage

and a down surge in T Blair usage.

Some people get addicted to sniffing the dirty laundry of others.

[ClintonTyree]

11. Hey, he's Emperor bush's right-hand man..............

if he can't bug lawmakers, who can? Emperor bush got away with it and Tony wants to do it too. He wants to be just like his hero george when he grows up.

Anyone notice a pattern here? The supposedly "free" countries are becoming more totalitarian and the supposedly "totalitarian" countries are becoming more free. george bush has set a standard that is destroying liberty everywhere it exists.

[stop the bleeding]

12. Not surprising at all n/t

[xchrom]

13. if bush can -- why can't tony?

poor thing -- he will always be a pale imitation of the original.

[EuroObserver]

14. Disturbing... But they have a history of doing what they choose... n/t