The Snoopers Charter is the most invasive surveillance law ever passed by a "democracy", requiring service providers to retain records of virtually everything you do online and with your phone, and then allowing virtually "everyone" to search that data, without a warrant or even record-keeping, so it's virtually impossible to catch systemic abuse of the system.
Unless you are a politician.
If you are a member of Parliament, a Lord, a member of the devolved regional parliaments, or a member of the European Parliament, you can only be spied on if the Prime Minister personally approves it.
The protections afforded to politicians are actually less than they had hoped to be given. Earlier in the process, the only amendment that MPs had submitted was one that would allow extra safeguards for politicians – forcing any request to monitor MP's communications to go through the speaker of the House of Commons as well as the prime minister.Whether intelligence agencies should be allowed to spy on politicians has been a contentious part of recent surveillance legislation. For many years, discussions between politicians and their constituents had been treated as off-limits – and they are still seen as "sensitive" under the new legislation – but those protections have been gradually rolled back.
Investigatory Powers Bill: Politicians exempt themselves from new wide-ranging spying laws
[Andrew Griffin/The Independent]
