[anomie]

Are they being humiliated though? Feels like they get lots of press when announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate, then when the whole thing gets abandoned it happens with almost no attention. The current government seems to be well aware that most of the time announcing a policy has a much higher ROI than actually implementing one (cf all the times pre-existing spending commitments get recycled in new announcements)

[toyg]

But you can only perform this act so much before it wears out and backfires. See for example the recent defections of "red wall" Tory MPs after the announcements you mention - they know the situation is becoming indefensible in the eyes of their electorate, since they keep promising money which then fails to materialize.

Have they reached this point with the "online moral-indignation brigade" yet? Maybe not, but it's been 5 years since the Snoopers' Charter, I don't know how many since the porn-blocking promises and about 13 since the first pledges in this area by a Conservative party, with no significant progress to show for it. That's a lot of time even in political terms.

[shapefrog]

> announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate

I really dont see anyone in the electorate clamouring for any of this stuff. Announcing the same policy being told it is a shit idea and announcing it again 6 months later is much harder to sell than the recycled spending (which they tend to just lie and say it is in addition to the last lot they announced anyway). That said, the electorate dont actually care much (unless it is a penny off the price of a pint or something) so it is hardly a humiliation when these ideas go nowhere and it makes the government look busy.

I can only assume that the driver is the security services, or just recycling past homework to look busy. As noted in many other comments they try all sorts of seemingly stupid ideas in this space - banning all encryption has failed countless times, adult verification is already a thing on mobile networks, and logging every online activity has slipped through and passed.

[hardlianotion]

If you say you're going to do this often enough, and keep getting thwarted for whatever reason, eventually you won't have much credibility with anyone.

[colejohnson66]

Unless your constituents want this. In the US, humiliation from other districts doesn't mean anything as long as you keep being voted in.