UK civil rights watch

Ok, I know there have been quite a few threads started up recently about specific events such as the G20 protests and the Plane Stupid demonstrations, where the British police have been shown quite clearly operating outside their normal parameters, so I am hoping EB (or any other moderator for that matter) will allow this general thread on civil rights matters in the UK to stay up and not be merged with other topics.
The reason I think it is important to have an ongoing thread on this issue is that there is compelling evidence that civil rights in the UK are being quietly eroded, and that the behaviour of the police in the last few months has been highly questionable.
British people are too complacent about the democracy they live in, probably because of our history, and the fact that apathy towards political processes is rife in the UK at the moment, but I would urge all Brits, at home and abroad to be aware of what is happening, particularly concerning new legislations that are snuck in to new acts like the recent Anti Terrorism Act, (for example: the one that now makes it illegal to photograph a police officer).
This is a recent story from The Guardian about Police officers offering a woman arrested for legitimately protesting at a Plane Stupid demo money to spy on other non-violent, legitimate environmental protesters.
Be aware..

The Inquiries Act 2005 is a definite example. Amnesty International has come out against it saying that it prevents a fair public inquiry because the inquiry is overseen by the relevant governmnet minister who can cover up anything that he/she doesn't want exposed.

According to The New Statesman:

and

Being that this board is about how we live in Germany, whilst a little concerning about our homeland, why is this relevant?

We all read the news.

In Germany we lucky enough that sometimes coalition issues force the 2 largest parties to abandon attempts to weaken civil liberties and there is a constitutional court as well.

See also:

New Counter-Terrorism Act in the UK

Stasi tactics - create a network of "Informelle Mitarbeiter."

The UK state has a long history of infiltrating or trying to infiltrate organisations whose legal (and sometimes non violent direction action that was not "legal" ) political activities were deemed a threat to the state and / or business interests. Just two modern examples are the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the National Union of Mineworkers.

So although a news story, it isn't a huge shocking break from their previous practices.

What we are seeing is an attempt by the police (and the spooks) as agents of the state to de-legitimise and undermine peoples' political activities
in a non parliamentary setting at the same time as the parliamentary politics is becoming de legitimised as ever.

Mother of democracy? My eye.

Latest news is that Jacqui Smith states there will not be a central database of voice and text communications, but has 'suggested' that the information will be collected by ISPs and other service providers.
Story here

What with me livng abroad and all that I don't really give a F about what happens in the UK. It has turned into a nanny state and is full of PC correctness. You can't even fart without it being registered on some database or video. I question whether we should even bother to be discussing it on this site...

Why would we want to know if you farted?

Well, given it's in international affairs section, it's just as off-topic as anything else here is. Personally, I don't mind this sort of topic because while some advocates of civil rights can be a little alarmist, the subject is a pretty important one and doesn't get many headlines.

Wait theres a database dedicated to farts?

I wasn't aware that there were 'advocates' of civil rights, just citizens who take their civil rights for granted.

Unless legislation applies to citizens rather than residents? I wouldn't want to be in a position where I couldn't visit the UK without being arrested because I had not complied with citizens' requirements.

Also, new laws like the requirement for all international travellers to provide their detailed and full travel plans 24 hours before leaving the UK will apply to us if we want to go back to the UK and then leave again.

And this is a pain in the arse for business travellers with flexible tickets. So my meeting finishes early and I try to catch an earlier flight/train out of the country - do I (or maybe the airline/Eurostar) then get fined GBP 5k ? Or something happens and I urgently needed to leave UK and fly somewhere else and can't wait 24 hours. Do I put GBP 5k on my expenses? What will the German authorities say if these expenses keep appearing on German companies' accounts and reduce the tax payable?

A small victory for human rights was won yesterday after the court of appeal deemed police surveillance of an arms trade campaigner to be unlawful.
Guardian report