[dewclin]

Returning back to the OT of surveillance and oversight, and as you're making this into a partisan issue, what would Labour do differently?

"Authoritarian" concerns were expressed last time Labour was in government [1], and they're "seriously considering" resurrecting their policy of mandatory id cards if they get in power again [2].

And, before I get smeared as a "Tory"/"Brexiteer", I am not - I'm someone who remembers what happened last time Labour was in power and see neither party offers an alternative to increasing surveillance in the UK.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/apr/24/commen...

[2] https://labourlist.org/2022/11/mandatory-id-card-policy-shou...

[tailspin2019]

> as you're making this into a partisan issue

Criticising the current PM doesn't automatically make it a partisan issue IMHO.

Personally I don't actually care what party they're in. I care how {badly} the {party who are currently in power} are running the country.

> neither party offers an alternative to increasing surveillance in the UK

I agree. They're all worthy of criticsm at the moment. And particularly the ones currently in power.

[dewclin]

> Criticising the current PM doesn't automatically make it a partisan issue IMHO.

In hindsight I was wrong to say that; it was a bad choice of words. I agree with you. Thanks.

[captainbland]

Authoritarianism is very much so bi-partisan in UK politics.

That said I do think the Tories have taken it to the n-th degree recently, though. It's unlikely that Labour would introduce new bills that are quite as heavy handed as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 but I imagine they're unlikely to unwind what is currently there now.

[ChrisKnott]

Lots of EU countries have ID cards, this is not something enabled by Brexit. I don't really get the dystopian angle to it either. Do countries with ID cards see them as authoritarian?

[Nextgrid]

The UK's aversion to ID cards is weird as they are perfectly happy with HMRC having a database entry for them for example, so the government already has a record of everyone.