David Davis « Dr Alf's Blog

This is a MUST READ article from the Guardian. Check it out!

via Germany blasts Britain over GCHQ’s secret cable trawl | UK news | The Guardian.

Yesterday, we saw China challenge the US over its spying activities and later it was reported that President Putin was prepared to offer Russian protection to Edward Snowden; although following US pressure Putin later said that Snowden was merely in transit. In the latest twist in this saga, Germany has challenged the UK about infringing privacy rights of German citizens. Here is a flavor:

The German justice minister, in her letters to Grayling and May, asks for clarification of the legal basis for Project Tempora and demands to know whether “concrete suspicions” trigger the data collection or whether the vast quantities of global email, Facebook postings, internet histories and phone calls are being held for up to 30 days as part of a general trawl.

It seems that German citizens have been seriously angered by the US/UK spying activities. Germany, of course, has the powerful Federal Constitutional Court of Germany to protect its citizens and the German Government always responds to it with care and respect.

In further twists, we hear that the UK has been blocking European moves for great privacy rules in Europe. Finally, the article picks up an attack from David Davis, the UK MP:

Writing in the Guardian, the former Conservative leadership contender David Davis disputes that view, saying Britain’s intelligence agencies are only subject to law in theory.

He accuses GCHQ of circumventing “inconvenient laws” by handing over personal data to the US and raises the prospect of “extremely serious violation” of the rights of British citizens over the use of their personal data.

Personally, I think that Germany has been right to challenge David Cameron’s Government for debasing privacy. However, I am saddened that David Cameron’s Government seems to be giving so little weight to individual liberties .

As a final open question I ask:

What ever happened to the traditional values of the UK Conservative Party?

Conservative Party (UK) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Any thoughts?

English: DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 29JAN10 – David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, United Kingdom, speaks during the session ‘Rethinking Government Assistance’ in the Congress Centre of the Annual Meeting 2010 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 29, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cover of Margaret Thatcher

David Davis MP (Conservative). (Photo: Robert Sharp / English PEN) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a good article by David Davis MP, reflecting on the results of last week’s local elections where the UK Independent Party gained so strongly. It’s worth a read. Check it out!

via Tories must start listening to ordinary voters, not their old school chums – Telegraph.

Although a life-long Tory voter, I lost faith in the Conservative Party when David Davis failed to secure the leadership against David Cameron. At the time, I felt that David Cameron was a light-weight, privileged, and out of touch with reality of ordinary people. Regular readers of this blog will know that my misgivings about David Cameron’s leadership have increased.

David Davis is self-made, like the late Margaret Thatcher, and closer to ordinary people than David Cameron and George Osborne. David Davis argues:

We have to do more to help conventional families through the hard times, including serious tax breaks for married couples. We should start cutting taxes to regenerate the economy, indeed we should have started years ago when it had more chance of working before the election.

The UK is not part of the Euro and can easily reflate the UK economy without recourse to Berlin and Bruxelles. The question surely:

Do David Cameron and George Osborne have the stomach for a full U-turn to reflate the economy or are they just hanging on for dear life?