The world’s dictators will envy the powers of Britain’s security state David Cameron’s government is about to go further than any other democracy in spying on its own people. The Prime […]

David Cameron’s government is about to go further than any other democracy in spying on its own people. The Prime Minister wants to give our intelligence agencies and civilian police powers that even authoritarian countries like Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia don’t have.

The Investigatory Powers Bill, which is being rushed through Parliament, will give the authorities the power to hack your laptop, to see all the websites you have visited, and to switch on the microphone on your smartphone and listen to your every conversation.

Who cares, you may ask? Too few people, certainly. But if we allow politicians to erode our privacy now we won’t get it back in the future. By then it will be too late, with artificial intelligence and huge datasets building a terrifying picture of who we are and what we believe.

i's opinion newsletter: talking points from today Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

When I visited Belarus to meet the victims of President Lukashenko’s regime, I also took time to have drinks with people involved in Minsk’s underground music scene in the bleak setting of a former Soviet nuclear bunker. If the conversation edged anywhere near to politics, someone quickly changed the subject. To speak out meant police detention, a beating in the dark,

or worse.

Britain is not Belarus. But how will the Foreign Office tell Belarus to respect the privacy of its citizens if it passes legislation that will enable our intelligence agencies to build databases of our most private data? And if Britain allows it, soon Belarus’s KGB and other security forces in autocratic states will be citing our legislation as an example to hack the smartphones of the cowed people I met in Minsk. Recently the Communist Party of China cited Western surveillance legislation to justify new sweeping powers.

No justification

The Government won’t even justify to Parliament why it needs these powers. Labour and the SNP have pushed for an independent assessment of why new mass surveillance powers are necessary, but the Home Secretary, Theresa May, has refused. With little debate, the Government wants to spend £1bn a year on forcing your internet provider to store every website you visit. At a time of police cuts, the Home Office won’t justify to taxpayers why it thinks £1bn a year is better spent on data capture, rather than 3,000 frontline police officers.

Unless the shadow ministers Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham are willing to work with other opposition parties to push back against the Government, by the end of this year it will take effect.

Britain is a proud democracy with a strong liberal tradition. Winston Churchill was cautious about suspending our right to free speech when we beat totalitarian fascism in the Second World War. Successive government plans to bring in ID cards have been beaten. The police cannot enter your home without

a warrant.

Yet we can also be reckless with our liberty. Many MPs glibly respond to concerns over the legislation by saying: “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.” It seems the only time they care about privacy is when it comes to their own expenses.