[lmorris84]

My first reaction to this was that VPN usage will explode, but I'm not sure how a VPN server hosted in another country would work with their desire to effectively ban encryption.

I feel like the UK is slowly goose stepping its way to a Chinese style firewall.

Given the right's obsession with what I'm ordering on Amazon, and the left being essentially unelectable right now, I'm not really sure where to put my vote at the next election.

[wepple]

I've been living in the UK for 2 years now, and just came back from several months in China.

Having been fairly 'cautious' about the surveillance situation in China, I returned only to realise it isn't a whole lot better here, and not improving.

Kinda glad I won't be staying in the UK, this is not a good direction to be going.

[anom9999]

It's very sad to read this. Often you read comparisons from Westerners comparing UK privacy laws to China's and it's easy to brush it off as being sensationalist. But to hear that from someone living in China is really worrying.

[gmac]

Corbyn: so "unelectable", he got elected Labour leader. If you don't like the idea of electing Corbyn, don't vote for him, but don't let his "unelectability" put you off.

[handelaar]

Quite. The people who insist loudest that he's unelectable are members of the Labour Party who just lost the UK general election, lost every single seat in Scotland but one, and know so much about how unelectable Corbyn is in elections that they couldn't beat him in an election themselves even though the only voters were Labour supporters.

[untog]

Appealing to Labour voters who vote in leadership elections is not the same as being elected by the general population to be Prime Minister, by any stretch.

[richmarr]

True, but the electoral logic that says Labour must be a centre-right party to get elected is the electoral logic of 1997, mixed with a heady selection of conscious and unconscious biases.

In reality I don't think anybody is qualified to state as fact that Corbyn is "unelectable". To me it's much more likely a statement intended to influence rather than inform.

[tonyedgecombe]

If we vote to leave the EU there is an exit process that takes two years and will lead up to the next election, if it doesn't go well I would say he stands a fair chance of being elected.

[fauigerzigerk]

The Lib Dems were the ones who blocked the Snoopers Charter last time around.

[chippy]

And with their recent blocking of the removal of child tax credits, they are going to be promoting their liberal privacy policies for the next election.

We must still remember, the UK people voted in this current government.

[Silhouette]

We must still remember, the UK people voted in this current government.

That is a weak argument, though.

For one thing, the last election was the best (worst?) demonstration in recent history of how a first-past-the-post electoral system can lead to wildly disproportionate power (or lack of power) in Parliament compared to actual levels of popular support for the various parties.

For another thing, what the current party in power said to get people to vote for them and what they do once safely in government are not necessarily the same thing, and there is little practical way to hold them to account for deviating from their pre-election claims until the next election comes around five years later.

[pjc50]

11.3M people, 37% of the electorate, voted in the current government.

[Silhouette]

It was actually 37% of those who voted. Only two thirds of the electorate did, so in fact fewer than 1 in 4 of the electorate actually voted for the party that now has an absolute majority in the House of Commons.

That actually wasn't the biggest quantitative statistical unfairness of the night -- that award surely goes to the dramatic under-representation of UKIP and the Lib Dems in MPs compared to the popular vote they attracted -- but given the implications of an outright majority in Parliament, the disproportionate Tory representation is probably the most practically significant of the statistical anomalies that night.

[ionised]

> that award surely goes to the dramatic under-representation of UKIP and the Lib Dems in MPs compared to the popular vote they attracted

I think you could lump the Greens in with them too.

[Silhouette]

Yes, that's fair, the Greens also suffered from the same electoral math bias that night.

[GordonS]

I voted for a stable economy, which Labour could not provide.

I did not vote for a furthering of authoritarian controls.

In any case, I suspect these would continue to creep in regardless of which party holds power.

[vixen99]

That is their affair. You can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

[akerro]

Before 1 of November I got a VPN endpoint Switzerland (non-EU) and in Slovenia. Even better I did this before PE broke net neutrality rules. Zurich feels safer.

[undefined0]

I also use Switzerland, but you should read up on BÜPF, they're wanting to go down the direction of the UK. Hopefully the direct democracy lets people throw the law out :\