You give the man too much credit. It started back in the 80s.
The 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act introduced multi-day detention without trial.
The Interception of Communications Act in 1985 allowed the government to tap phones as much as it liked.
The Public Order Act of 1986 required that protesters give advance notice to police, and allowed police to ban protests.
The 1989 revisions to the Official Secrets Act made it possible to charge people with breach of the act without telling them what they did wrong, and removed the public interest defense, amongst other things.
Also in 1989, the Prevention of Terrorism Act allowed the government to declare organizations illegal, which meant they could then arrest you for belonging to those organizations. It also allowed people to be arrested and held without being charged with any crime, for up to 5 days.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-06-26 03:10 am (UTC)The 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act introduced multi-day detention without trial.
The Interception of Communications Act in 1985 allowed the government to tap phones as much as it liked.
The Public Order Act of 1986 required that protesters give advance notice to police, and allowed police to ban protests.
The 1989 revisions to the Official Secrets Act made it possible to charge people with breach of the act without telling them what they did wrong, and removed the public interest defense, amongst other things.
Also in 1989, the Prevention of Terrorism Act allowed the government to declare organizations illegal, which meant they could then arrest you for belonging to those organizations. It also allowed people to be arrested and held without being charged with any crime, for up to 5 days.
Nobody cared then, nobody will care now.