2002-06-18»
we slashdotted the government.ยปI’ve just sent a very STANDish mail out to the people who helped with the campaign against the RIP Standing Order that would give dozens of government departments access to traffic data without a warrant. It’s all very quiet-pat-on-the-back for everybody involved.
This, however, is my personal Web site, where I’m allowed to say:
Holy fucking batshit, we won!
The Home Secretary, David Blunkett (equivalent, I suppose, to John Ashcroft in the US) actually came out and said that the government had “blundered”, and was “wrong”. The BBC just ran a news story (needs Real player, and will go out of date at 1230BST on Wednesday 19th June – I’ll get hold of an MPG shortly) about how the majority of pressure came from e-mail and faxes from ordinary Net users.
After a hardcore Internet campaign, they withdrew the whole goddamn proposal, at a stage where it was only a week away from becoming law.
People keep on saying “unprecedented U-turn” and “unusual government honesty”. I’m trying to work out how we can turn this into everyday politics.