Freedom on a cushion? We’ve been stitched up
On a cushion in the house we are renting in Augusta this week, is a message. ‘Freedom is not free,’ it reads. And freedom most certainly isn’t. These days, it’s a slogan you put on cushions.
The two countries most obsessed with exporting their idea of freedom around the globe, usually at the point of a bayonet, seem equally keen on denying it to their citizens. ‘Sign right here for our brand of freedom, sir. Sign up for email surveillance without warrant. Sign for strip searches. Sign for a spook on every corner and a spy in every home. Go on, you know you want this. Says right here on this cushion.’
Many are describing the proposed expansion of police and security powers in Britain as the greatest threat to freedom in the democratic West. Yet it’s been coming for some time and few noticed, or cared.
Freedom? GCHQ may get the power to monitor every call, email, text message or website visit
Every telephone call, text message, email exchange and internet connection accessed, in real time if necessary and without a warrant, is merely the next step from what has already unfolded at News International.
Data Pool 3, the millions of emails handed over to the police by the company, contained information never intended for public eyes and unconnected to illegal activity. Many of these emails would simply have been sent by ordinary staff members.
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They could be deeply personal notes to medical professionals or partners, or professional revelations of an entirely innocent, yet unquestionably private, nature. Why were police given them all, not just those that concerned implicated individuals?
More from Martin Samuel - Sport for the Daily Mail...
- MARTIN SAMUEL: Qatar 2022 rolled over us and we had to lie back and take it. A Saudi World Cup in 2030? Football just needs to say NO to the hideous Gianni Infantino and his FIFA henchmen 19/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: This is Lionel Messi's last chance to shape his legacy and rest in the pantheon beside Pele and Maradona... an off day against a great French side will be fatal. No pressure, then. 16/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: Is it racist to think the manager of England's football team should be English? No. Is it nationalist? Yes. That's the POINT of international sport 15/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: If Gareth Southgate does not want to carry on as England manager, there is ALWAYS someone else. He shouldn't leave feeling guilty. He's been brilliant and has let nobody down 12/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: Gareth Southgate's ONLY blunder was not being bold enough with the World Cup's most gifted bench… Jack Grealish or James Maddison could have made a difference before France's winner 11/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: Gareth the gambler will lose without a grand plan to stop Kylian Mbappe… it would be arrogant and negligent for Southgate to think England can beat France and this generational talent without one 09/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: Of course the FA want Gareth Southgate to remain in charge of England beyond the World Cup - who is going to do a better job? His brilliance is that he is still positively affecting his players in his third tournament 08/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: It's been downhill all the way for Eddie Jones since defeat in the 2019 World Cup final - the man with the fast mouth and all the answers suddenly appeared CLUELESS 06/12/22
- MARTIN SAMUEL: Qatar got to host the World Cup as a vehicle for change, but change has since been repurposed as more western disrespect… this is the cake-and-eat-it playbook of politics 05/12/22
- VIEW FULL ARCHIVE
There was never a word of complaint about this, but a precedent was set. If you are using a work email address, a company mobile telephone, laptop or computer, do not consider your information secret. It can be given to any third party for inspection without permission, whether the subject relates to criminal activity or a nasty little rash.
We are surrendering freedom piecemeal. In America this week, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that officials have the right to strip search those arrested for any offence, however minor, before admittance to jail. That is 13 million people annually whose rights could be violated. There does not even have to be suspicion of contraband, drugs or weapons possession. Failing to pay child support: strip search. Dog not on a lead: strip search. No driving licence? No panties. That’s the law.
‘People detained for minor offences can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals,’ wrote Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court.
Yes, but so could anybody. Using that logic, why wait for an offence to be committed at all? Just pull people in at random and take off their clothes. Some of them will turn out to be up to no good, and there’s your justification.
As freedom decamps to the soft furnishings department, the only surprise is that spooks are even seeking permission for this latest round of invasion and monitoring; they can as good as do as they wish now, anyway.
Hacked? George Galloway made an embarrassing Twitter gaffe after his victory in the Bradford West by-election
I was hacked: it is the most modern of excuses. George Galloway used it after sending a Twitter message celebrating his victory in Blackburn.
Embarrassed — he actually won in Bradford — he later added: ‘Nice try. Password now changed.’ And then: ‘The tweet you received re Blackburn was a hoax.’ Protesting too much? It certainly seems so. Everybody caught out on electronic media these days claims to have been hacked.
Drunken rant? I was hacked. Insulting email? I was hacked. Yet Galloway’s supposedly fraudulent message made perfect sense, with the exception of that word. ‘Welcome to our 6,000 new followers,’ it read. ‘I will try to live up to expectations. Shattered but happy after the Blackburn triumph.’
Now, surely, a person who had gone to all the trouble of illegally accessing a private Twitter account would have had more mischievous fun than that? It is not as if there isn’t enough material in Gorgeous George.
Equally, wouldn’t a publicity hound MP want police involvement if he thought there was a deliberate attempt to discredit him? Indeed, considering the level of interest in this subject, isn’t a visit from the Old Bill appropriate anyway, just to ensure one of our most widely travelled politicians receives the protection he truly deserves?
The only way is education!
Sunday afternoon, gorgeous sunshine, a pavement café in Brighton. The young couple next to us are talking loudly about one of the girls from The Only Way Is Essex.
‘She thought that princesses actually had the christian name Princess,’ the girl shrieked. ‘Like, to be in the Royal Family that was actually your name. I mean, how can you be that stupid? They’re just so stupid, aren’t they? It’s ridiculous.’
‘So what is the Queen’s last name?’ the boy asked. Silence descended. He looked it up on his iPhone. ‘Mary,’ he decided. ‘It says Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. So Mary must be her last name.’
They both nodded sagely, glad not to be thick like the people on TV. Then they went off to finish their essay on Martin Luther King. They’re going to be shocked to find out he’s not Beyonce’s bass player.
The grave of Field Marshal Ernst Busch in Cannock Chase cemetery, Staffordshire, is marked by a single stone. This has greatly upset a local old soldier, Ron Mattison of the Staffordshire Regimental Association. ‘I would have thought a field marshal would have deserved a better-looking gravestone,’ he said. ‘That rank puts him at the very top.’ Indeed it does: the top of the Nazi party. Ron, you might want to check your head for shrapnel.
