Government Incompentence (and Bad Law)

On the day I discover one of the least pleasant people I have ever taken a telephone call from was anointed Spectator "Brutish Thug Politician of the Year", I want to have a little rant. I do keep promising myself that this is not going to turn into a swear-blog, but it is getting a little difficult.

Many of you will not be aware that the "Police and Justice Act 2006" received Royal Assent on the 8th of November. Amongst the many, many things that this typical piece of Nu-Lab gimmickry does are some significant amendments to the Computer Misuse Act 1990. The amendment to the Section 1 offence is technical (legally, not computery). The amendment to the Section 3 offence to make explicit that conducting Denial of Service and Distributed Denial of Service attacks is covered is welcome.

The creation of the new Section 3A offence - to do with making, supplying and obtaining articles which may be used in the commission of a Section 1 or 3 offence (what has poor Section 2 done, I ask you), was, last time I saw the draft words, bad, bad law. I have numerous tools available on various computers, including the one I am using to write this, that could be used to assist, commit or prevent (the latter being my job) the commission of various CMA90 offences. These tools may no longer be legal.

Why am I so fucking annoyed? Because I don't know what is legal and what is not. Because the incompetent fucking morons who preside over ever-increasing aspects of our endlessly monitored (it's to protect the kiddies / grannies / you, you know) existences cannot be bothered to deign to shift their fat arses away from their self-congratulatory face-stuffing awards dinners to publish their fascist (or Stalinist, this is Reid we are talking about, but the effect on us is the same) commands to the ever-so-humble peasantry they deem us to be. It may be available here by the time you are reading this. Or it may not. You can see lots of stuff here, but that is not designed to be readily parsed by us peons and it still doesn't tell me what exactly they made Her Majesty sign us all up to in what I can only assume is still Section 42 (but may not be - somewhere around there, probably.)

Thanks ever so fucking much, Dr Reid. Yes, this arrant incompetence does concern a piece of what even you admit is the "not fit for purpose Home Office" legislation. I hope you enjoyed your dinner.

Oh, and readers, I apologise to you, but not to the pols, for the language. I will try not to let it happen again.

S-E

Update (25 Nov) - it is here now. It isn't Section 42 - it's now Section 37. For those too lazy to wait for the OPSI site:

37	Making, supplying or obtaining articles for use in computer misuse offences
	After section 3 of the 1990 Act there is inserted-
	"3A Making, supplying or obtaining articles for use in offence under section 1 or 3 (1) A person is guilty of an offence if he makes, adapts, supplies or offers to supply any article intending it to be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of, an offence under section 1 or 3. (2) A person is guilty of an offence if he supplies or offers to supply any article believing that it is likely to be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of, an offence under section 1 or 3. (3) A person is guilty of an offence if he obtains any article with a view to its being supplied for use to commit, or to assist in the commission of, an offence under section 1 or 3. (4) In this section "article" includes any program or data held in electronic form. (5) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable- (a) on summary conviction in England and Wales, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both; (b) on summary conviction in Scotland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both; (c) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine or to both."

Cunts. Utter, utter cunts. John "PhD in Stalinist Hypocracy" Reid, the sanctimonious gits at the Home Office, the egregious toads that put this through Parliament, the whole fucking lot of them. I am off to hit something and then get cross about the National ID Register.