David Cameron warned in his Downing Street statement on the Woolwich killing against forming ‘knee-jerk responses’ to the atrocity. But it was inevitable that there would be many knees flying in the air over a piece of legislation that some say could either have prevented the killing, or made it easier to piece together the evidence. The Communications Data Bill – better known as the Snooper’s Charter – is back in the spotlight after everyone had assumed that Nick Clegg had kicked it into the next Parliament at least.
Alan Johnson called it a resigning issue on the Marr Show, Lord Carlile accused his own party of blocking the legislation for political reasons, and Sadiq Khan said that a new bill with more proportionate powers was something Labour would support. Simon Hughes claimed he hadn’t seen any evidence to suggest this piece of legislation would have made any difference in this instance (although those in government might argue that it’s not surprising the deputy leader of the Lib Dems hasn’t seen such evidence).
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