Official spying expands in Left-run Britain

A big disincentive to free speech:

"Councils [municipalities] and health authorities are to be given the right to access e-mail and internet records under surveillance powers to be introduced next year, the Home Office said yesterday. Although first proposed to tackle terrorism and serious crime, powers have been extended to cover other criminal activity, public health, threats to public safety and even prevention of self-harm.

The Home Office said that the move would involve internet service providers storing one billion incidents of data each day and storing them for a minimum of 12 months. Under the plans the taxpayer would pay $92 million to internet service providers for holding information, even though some already keep similar records for marketing purposes.

Opposition MPs criticised the plans as a "snoopers' charter".

Source

Leftists used to say they supported privacy -- but I guess that applies to homosexuals only.