[rbehrends]

The number by itself is not worrying, but you have to understand that this is not (at least not directly) related to the Snowden case, but is to be seen in the context of the other recent police scandals in the UK, such as the allegations that there was a police-coordinated smear campaign against Stephen Lawrence or that criminal private investigators may have been given access to internal police databases, allowing them to bypass the witness protection program and reach and intimidate witnesses.

If you read the Guardian article, you will find that the concerns are not (just) the number of people being observed, but whether the "domestic terrorists" weren't just politically inconvenient people that the police had no business investigating, let alone with the methods that are being alleged.

In short: This is not about spying as such, but about the police allegedly acting outside the law.

[walshemj]

Yes the Police seem to have less oversight than MI5 do in this case.