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Comment by michaelt | Hacker News Reader

> it feels like there's been a shift since Labour came into power. Historically this overbearing surveillance has been held back.

I had hoped Labour would roll back the anti-protest legislation, snooper's charter, internet censorship and voter ID laws.

After all, it was mostly left-wing climate protesters getting arrested, and young (more left-leaning) voters being prevented from voting.

Turns out no, quite the opposite - if anything, Labour thinks these laws didn't go far enough.

With hindsight, it was naive of me to think the former Director of Public Prosecutions would share my scepticism about expanding the powers of the system the Director of Public Prosecutions stands at the head of.

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> Turns out no, quite the opposite - if anything, Labour thinks these laws didn't go far enough.

That's basically how the news, including the BBC, tend to report on these laws. "Some think they are good. Others think they don't go far enough. Experts say risk remains." Never ever do they interview the EFF.

The BBC was always pretty establishment, but now they're very afraid of seeming “left wing”, and so we get this…

Since Cameron threatened them, they have been much more tightly under the central gov influence.

The editorial team for news has always been full of Tories (including some that either have tried running as MPs, were in the young conservatives etc).

When the left complains about the BBC they mean its news and political coverage.

The right doesn't like the diversity in its comedy shows.

These are two pretty different concerns.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taking-Liberties-Chris-Atkins/dp/19...

Read this around 2007ish, shocked by what the previous labour government did, so I had zero hope this lot would be any different and it's worse than I thought possible.

As Blair got most institutionalised to the world of politics he became more and more authoritarian. Starmer appears to be listening to Blair who is now even worse than he was as PM.

Labour generally has a "paternalistic authoritarianism" to they way they govern, but this is dialed to 11.

My hope was that Labour would seize the opportunity and roll back the unpopular Tory policies too. It would've been easy points to score for the next general election. Instead, as you say, they just continued with and extended them.

People still believe the faces on the telly ate in charge.

So who pressured them?

> After all, it was mostly left-wing climate protesters getting arrested, and young (more left-leaning) voters being prevented from voting

Quite a mistake to think politicians would act to better anyone's lives, including those who helped elect them.

Labour purged pretty much everyone on the left.

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