Security Bullet In
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Wednesday 14 January 2009, 11:45 AM
Lib Dems set up Commission on Privacy
The Commission on Privacy was announced on Tuesday. Chairing the group will be Lib Dem MP David Heath, shadow leader of the house. Other members of the Commission will include Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, and Simon Davies, director of Privacy International.
Heath told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg had felt the need to set up the group due to "the current extent of intrusive technology."
"Nick and I feel this issue is of increasing importance," said Heath. " [The Commission will examine] the privacy of the individual against the increasing demands for more information from the state."
Heath said that the first order of business for the group would be to produce "a hard-hitting, practical report", due in the Spring. When asked whether the report would coincide with the Liberal Democrat Spring conference, Heath declined to comment.
The other members of the Commission are: Baroness Sue Miller, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson in the House of Lords; Observer journalist Henry Porter; Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge;
barrister Richard Rampton QC, who specialises in libel; and Richard Allen, Cisco's UK head of government affairs.
Heath spoke to ZDNet UK at a Commons Select Committee hearing into the work of the Information Commissioner on Tuesday.
PreviousComments on this post
I'm afraid the Lib Dems are no more with it than Labour. At present the only big problem that requires attention is the nation's mishandled economy. The Lib Dem's commission should be focussing on how to massively reduce the government's ineffective expenditures. Such as what quango is worth what it costs and what would be the ACTUAL effect of shutting down the quango, how would that affect members of the public in practical terms.
How can levels of Government be reduced? Do we need Regional Assemblies and what would their loss mean, again in practical terms, to the man in the street.
How they can make Councils control expenditure that is not actually necessary to the running of the locality, cut waste and non-productive jobs.
What can be done to reduce the ever expanding scope and payroll of the EU and how can it be made to reduce it's budgetary requirements by 20% in the next year and thereafter.
That's what the Lib Dems should be doing - relating Government spending to "the man in the street".
