Hiding in the budget

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It’s really quite amazing what gets hidden in the budget, like HMRC being allowed to intercept any suspicious mail anywhere in the country and open it before it is delivered. (hat tip LPUK). Now to be fair they can intercept stuff at the moment, but they have to tell you before they open it, the plan is in future they can just open stuff without telling you. The relevant section of the Postal Services Act 2000 is already quite vague but does at least state clearly that they have to give you the chance to be there when they open it. Once they can start opening stuff without telling you the possibility for feature creep is huge, especially after people haven’t complained too much – nothing to hide nothing to fear and all that. If nothing else I’m sure efficiency savings will soon allow people other then officers of HMRC to make that initial inspection. Then combined with the various legislations that require people to report any evidence of “offences” they happen across it would seem to be reminiscent of tactics used by other less pleasant states.

Oh and just for good measure this is planned to come in in the next 4 weeks so before any general election could stop it.

Amazing how things like this get tucked away in the oddest of places, isn’t it.

update Just noticed that the Royal Mail spokesman said:
“Royal Mail has no powers to open the mail”
which isn’t true as the previously mentioned act states:
“107 Conditions of transit of postal packets

(1) If a postal operator knows or reasonably suspects that a postal packet is being sent by post in contravention of section 85, he may—

(a) refuse the transmission of the packet,

(b) detain the packet and open it,

(c) subject to any requirements as to additional postage or charges, return the packet to its sender or forward it to its destination,

(d) destroy or otherwise dispose of the packet”

Section 85 is mainly about dangerous parcels and dirty pictures.

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Bits of budget and other stuff

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One thing I hadn’t noticed in much of the budget coverage was that the idea to charge a 50p a month tax for having a telephone line, to fund rural broadband is alive and well (hat tip The Register). Though only if Labour win another term, or if the Tories decide it’s a wizard wheeze to take more money off us. Of course once they do you can bet it will be as temporary a tax measure as VAT is.

Meanwhile Letters from a Tory picks up on some news that has been over shadowed by the budget. The proposed ban on smoking in cares being put forward by the Royal college of Physicians has been excellently dealt with by LegIron. However if you can somehow bring yourself to ignore this huge attempt at encroaching onto private space (not something that should be ignored by any account) the other worrying thing that lept out at me was the idea that this would “see children … shielded from the sight of adults smoking”

The size of wedge that could be the thin end of is staggering. Once that wedge is in smoking on the street or anywhere a child might somehow see you would be right out, and after smoking what other “undesirable” activity would be safe from future legislation. They’ll be compiling a black list (or new versions but a black list would be cheaper) of every book, film, play and TV show that shows smoking in anyway and slapping an 18 certificate on it. Followed by an outright ban the moment some spotty teen finds his dads stash of smoking videos and accidentally gets a small burn/horrific scar from playing with the lighter found next to them.

But to finish on a lighter note government cut backs could see 25 per cent of charities fold. Where by charities we’re really talking about state funded bodies not charities that actually depend on people voluntarily giving them money. Yes this will no doubt affect vulnerable people, and even impact those much vaunted “front line services” that Labour have promised they’ll protect. But they’ll be able to deny it all as these charities aren’t run by them (honest). You can probably safely bet that it will be charities that actually do something useful that will be affected first, and not those that spend our money lobbying the government to tell us what to do.

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Digital Economy Bill – Petiton Harriet

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Currently the Digital economy bill, is still trundling it’s way through parliament without any proper debate or anyone much taking a look at it. On Thursday Harriet Harman will have to explain the Government’s plans for this bill so before then write to her and ask that it be given proper time for a full debate.

This in case you’ve forgotten is the bill that will block access to websites and cut off your internet access for alleged copyright infringement whilst at the same time allow anyone to make use of your photographs for anything if they think it’s an orphan work. So big business will remove you network connection or website because you used some old clip, whilst at the same time they’ll use any photo they like because it’s an “orphan work” honest and besides they’ve paid a notional sum to the Government to allow them to use it.

Really this bill is so bad it’s not even wrong.

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