- Awwww! Poor Charles Clarke! His massively intrusive plans for poking into every aspect of our insignificant lives seem to have run into a bit of opposition: the European Telecommunications Network Operators's Association has branded Charlie's data retention plans illegal, dubbed their effectiveness unproved, and estimated the cost to be prohibitive (see, e.g., The Guardian). Meanwhile MEPs have accused the Blair government of "exploiting the fear factor" and dishing out "summary justice". Blair has been dubbed Big Brother by one French newspaper (and no, that sadly doesn't mean he's going to get his flabby mantits out and shove a wine bottle up his jacksy), while Germany, France and Denmark are all lined up in opposition. Good.
Still, no one yet seems to have picked up on Clarke's comments about ID cards - that's where this is really heading...
1 Comments:
part of the reason why reimbursement is such an issue is because of the legal basis of the council's proposal - due to it being a pillar 3 (ie intergovernmental / JHA) agreement it is legally awkward (read impossible) for them to mandate reimbursement by govts because this puts it into the area of pillar 1, i.e. the Commission's prerogative which would mean the bill would have to go thru the EP where it is likely to be voted down.
all extremely complicated :)
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