[dingaling]

The public also have very little recourse in fighting such creep.

It's not politicians of one particular party or another who have an 'EUREKA!' moment in the bath and rush into Parliament with ideas for new surveillance powers. They are persuaded / cajoled / wearied in backroom conversations and presentations by career civil servants who can outlast any uncooperative Government ministers.

Teresa May might have a front-line political career of 15 to 20 years. A senior civil servant is just starting his rise to power by then.

> "I have nothing to hide, why should I care?"

Alternatively "There's nothing I can do about it, why waste my energy fighting it?".

That reminds me to update my archive of crypto source-code.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

The only real recourse is the Human Rights Act and the European Court of Human Rights.

Both of which, of course, Theresa May wants us to get rid of, so UK citizens will have /no/ constitutionally-entrenched rights.

[Bartweiss]

> Teresa May might have a front-line political career of 15 to 20 years. A senior civil servant is just starting his rise to power by then.

I've suspected for years that Americans would understand our government better if we had a domestic version of Yes, Minister. Not House of Cards or The West Wing (though that came closer), but something that captures the petty pressures and intransigence of an entrenched civil service.

[TheRealDunkirk]

So much this. The only thing that would be able to move the needle on public perception on this issue is wall-to-wall coverage in the written and televised press, and endless nameless talking heads decrying it on cable news shows. Only then would public opinion shift enough to pressure elected government officials to NOT try to do such things. And that will never happen, because the news organizations -- ALL of them, I'm convinced -- are at least influenced by the governmental parties, if not bought outright. Most of the time, I pick on the US, because I'm American, but I don't think that this is particular to the States. The notion of a "free press" is largely obviated by simple economics these days, because of the need for favorable treatment at the hands of tax codes and regulations to compete in the world economy. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."