Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

the elites are lying and that politicians say one thing and do another. Yet
when politicians who do genuinely oppose intrusive surveillance powers
stay quiet in the face of draconian legislation, it feeds conspiracy theories
that democracy is a fix.
If social democrats are too frightened to stand up for what they believe
in, then why bother voting for them? Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected by
Labour members who wanted to see the party change direction. It’s
hard to see how giving the Tories a free pass to give the state unjustified
powers is part of that mandate.
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Labour has just weeks to get this legislation right. Chakrabarti, Corbyn
and Abbott can with no good reason abstain – they must work with the
Liberal Democrats, the SNP and independent members of the House of
Lords to make amendments to remove some of the worst elements of
this bill; from police access to our web browsing history through to the
request filter (which is like a powerful search engine, except it can trawl
through the data of innocent citizens). If they fail, it will embolden the
Mayist Tories to continue their permanent revolution against liberty and
liberals.
Theresa May’s first attempt at the Snooper’s Charter began in 2012.
Four years on, it looks as though she has finally ground parliament into
submission. If she wins this battle unopposed, you wonder which other
freedoms we shall lose.
Mike Harris is the founder and director of 89up and the former head of
advocacy at Index on Censorship
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 16