Big Brother is Watching me and Beaming Subliminal Messages into my Brain

That title, eh? Makes it look like retirement (or economic inactivity) has turned me into a conspiracy theorist convinced that I am being manipulated by dark forces to their bidding.

What was it Kurt Cobain said? Something like “Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”

I know, all this talk of grand conspiracy theories to grab power and hold the populace is all total twaddle and comes from the paranoia of the ignorant. Then I watched Channel4 News. Of all of the UK news outlets, Channel4 News has become the one I believe is the most fearless, although a touch left of centre on social issues. Well last night, they ran a story about how data gathered through social media had been used to supress voting in the US 2016 election.

I suppose it is my progressive, liberal upbringing, but I was shocked. My first reaction was denial, it could never happen here in the UK. Then synaptic tangents started to kick in.

Those strange seemingly random posts that crossed my timeline on Facebook in the run up to the Brexit referendum; the rather outrageous claims from apparent strangers on Twitter; emails highlighting political issues or politicians. They could all just be coincidence of course.

When you start joining imaginary dots to some of the news stories you see, you do start to wonder. Is Dominic Cummings employing black magic data mining techniques to subvert democracy? Are the Russians targeting our elections? Just what was the result of the meddling highlighted in the Russia Report?

I could be slowly turning into a keyboard warrior driven by paranoia over conspiracy theories. There again, maybe the political parties and pressure groups may know more about me than I give them credit.

There is only one thing to do and that is find out. One of the better regulations to come out of the EU is the data privacy laws. The link, if you followed it, takes you to the ICO who are charged with ensuring compliance in the UK. The law also gives you certain rights as to how organisations use your data and allows you to get a record of what data they store.

I came up with a cunning plan to find out what the political parties store about me and what they think they know.

So, I am going to write to the various political parties and organisations and ask them:

What data do you hold on me?

How do you use the data you hold on me?

Who do you share my data with?

To be honest, I don’t hold out a lot of hope on that last point, but if I do find out, I shall be writing to those third parties as well.

Grab your tinfoil hat, up the dosage on those dried frog pills and watch this space. Let’s see what happens!

UPDATE 12:15 29/09/2020

An automated response was received from the Labour Party telling me that in order to process my request, I had to provide photo ID. I guess this kind of adds a layer of security to the process. Anyway, this has been supplied and I await developments.

UPDATE 11:30 02/10/2020

LeaveEU has responded asking me to fill in a form and send it back to them snail mail. I might also send it back email, just to free my inner rebel. Nothing yet from the Conservatives or LibDems.

UPDATE 14:00 05/10/2020

The Conservatives have requested proof of ID before they will process my request. This has been provided.

UPDATE 11:00 06/10/2020

The LibDems have now responded. They too want proof of ID which has been provided.

UPDATE 09:30 19/10/2020

LeaveEU have emailed me a reminder to send in the information they need to process my request. This has already been done, but I sent the info again via email.

Asking my MP to act for UK Democracy

I am writing to my MP again.

This is not big news; I quite often fire off letters to my MP.  To be fair to him, he always replies, but as yet not in a conclusive and fully supportive manner.

Being an MP, I’m sure that he gets a lot of correspondence and there will be letters from other constituents that take an opposing view to mine.

However, this letter is different. This letter is about the future of British democracy. So, I should expect a full and committed endorsement of the need to maintain the democracy of this country and the institutions that ensure its scrutiny, right?

Just feeling the need to question that statement suggests to me that I am losing faith in the commitment of this government to the basic principles of our democracy. That is incredibly sad. I have grown up believing that the British democracy is a great and noble example that the world should follow; That the British system is so good, nobody ever felt the need to write it down and call it a constitution; That our elected officials treasure the system as much as I do and would never act counter to the spirit of freedom and democracy.

Yet now we have an elected government that appears to be determined to undermine the very fabric of our democracy and are making it appear incredibly fragile.

At this point I could go off on a long and detailed list of the indiscretions of the UK Government. Give examples of how little value they place in truth, honesty and integrity. Go off on a long and impassioned rant over the ignoring of the Nolan Principles of Public Life. Wind myself up over cronyism, favours for their mates, perceptions of corruption and gerrymandering.

I am not sure that I have the stomach for that right now. Instead I will just post my letter to my MP. I will revisit this when I have a reply.

-Letter follows-

Dear Mr Pursglove,

Many thanks for your letter dated 18th September where you responded at length about the Internal Markets Bill. I fear some confusion must have been generated by the way I presented my query as this was only part of my concern that I raised as a supporting point & a symptom to highlight why I was uncomfortable with the direction of travel of the current government.

I will therefore attempt to ensure clarity as I repeat my query.

Do you commit to the continuing democracy of the United Kingdom and ensuring that the supporting institutions and democratic principles are robust and adequately funded to ensure that adequate scrutiny is applied to Government actions? Do you also commit to ensuring the government is subject to full scrutiny to ensure that it follows the rule of law?

As you hold a Politics degree, I am sure you will be disturbed that one of your constituents would ever feel the need to ask their MP to commit to British democracy. As you are a passionate campaigner to regain sovereignty from the EU, I am sure that you would be aghast if having regained our sovereignty, it became tainted by corruption, unelected advisors, contempt for the rule of law and an erosion of our British freedoms.

To assist, below is a summary of why I feel current government actions threaten the future of our precious and fragile democracy and some supplemental questions.

• 1       The Civil Service is supposed to be provide independent & impartial advice and support in the implementation of government policy. Since this government has come to power, they have systematically replaced senior Civil Servants with their own, seemingly political appointments. Do you believe this supports good governance and ensures adequate scrutiny is applied to the details of government actions?
• 2.       The government has signalled it is intent to limit access to Judicial Review of government. Do you believe this supports good governance and ensures adequate scrutiny is applied to the details of government actions?
• 3.       The judicial system has been subject to a series of cuts and budget constraints over the last decade that has resulted in ever growing backlog of cases. This backlog has only been made worse by the current Covid crisis. Do you commit to ensuring that the funding of our legal system to address the backlog and ensure that our justice system is functioning effectively?
• 4.       The Russian Report was published by the ISC on 21/07/2020. This showed some unsettling interventions in the UK political system. Do you commit to pushing the government to holding an independent enquiry into the impacts of the foreign interventions into the UK democratic process and putting forward recommendations to prevent this in future?
• 5.       Government ministers appear to be avoiding scrutiny and taking actions that appear to be corrupting the democratic process. An example being the allocation of the Town Fund which appears to have been done in a way that ignores the advice of officials and benefits Conservative targeted marginal seats. Do you commit to ensuring that the decision is reviewed and that funds are allocated according to need rather than political gain?
• 6.       The government appears to be denuding the BBC and the free press in the country of funding while placing political friends in positions of authority that can influence the impartiality and freedom of the press. Do you commit to ensuring that the BBC is adequately funded and maintains full editorial independence?
• 7.       Michael Gove has signalled a willingness to amend the UK Human Rights Act ‘to make it easier’ for the government to enact ministers’ executive orders. Do you commit to protecting the UK Human Rights Act, that you will ensure that no changes will be made to the act without full and proper consultation and that when any actions come to be voted upon, they will be a matter of the MP conscience rather than a three-line whip?

At this point, I wish to briefly return to your letter on the Internal Market Bill. It appears to be a standard letter that a number of MP have sent to constituents and I am sure you have already been made aware of the inaccuracies and incorrect assumptions made within it – not least the selective and totally incorrect citing of the Miller Case.

I should remind you of why your government finds itself having to breach international law and are struggling to find convincing arguments to justify this shameful action. You supported the Withdrawal Agreement. You voted to reduce the time to scrutinise the agreement, even though at the time concerns were raised over the impacts on the NI peace accord. You then fought and won an election based on the flawed Withdrawal Agreement. That may not have been an issue, but you then voted on an Agriculture Bill that removed food & animal welfare standard provisions sparking the fear that food produced to the woeful US standards would find its way into the EU via Northern Ireland.

The mess of the Internal Markets Bill is of your own making and by showing such disregard to International Law, has destroyed any moral authority the UK may have had when dealing with China on Hong Kong.

 

I look forward to your response on the many questions raised in this letter.

UPDATE: It is now three weeks since I sent the letter. As yet, no response. A follow up is needed.