“The more powers you give people, the more they feel they can’t do without and then it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle.” says Roger.
Speaking from Westminster, Roger said: “In my opinion a balance has to be struck between the rights of ordinary people to be able to communicate without ‘big brother’ watching them and also the need for vigilance in tracking internet usage involved in terrorism or potential terrorist activities and also criminality and money laundering.
As you know proposals were floated towards the end of the last Government for greater surveillance of various forms of internet traffic but I was not convinced then, neither am I now, that there needs to be blanket legislation brought in. It is much better, in my opinion, if the security services seek the permission of the Home Secretary if they feel there is a need to monitor information traffic as is the case now when permission has to be sought from the Home Secretary for phones to be tapped.”
Expressing his concerns at how previous legislation had been abused he concluded: “Previous anti-terrorist legislation was extensively used by local councils to monitor the activities of benefit claimants despite numerous assurances at the time that activity such as this could never happen under the safeguards introduced under the legislation. Legislation like this is is a self-fulfilling prophesy, the more powers you give people the more they want, then its too late to put the genie back in the bottle.”
“The general public has just cause to believe that their personal information is not safe in government hands or anybody else’s.”

This article appeared in the January edition of Roger's newsletter 'Postcard from Parliament'