Who killed the Snoopers’ Charter?

As Liberty’s email to its supporters today says, “The Snoopers’ Charter is dead” or as Julian Huppert has written over on Lib Dem Voice, I agree with Nick. He’s right to kill the Snoopers’ Charter.

Understandably, lots of people are stake a claim to their share of the credit for this outcome, even if Liberty has gone a little 38 Degrees in implying in that email that all the success lies with itself.

The key decision maker on all this has been Nick Clegg, so the credit lies directly with himself and then in turn with those who have had the most influence on him. Julian Huppert is certainly one of those, as are others such as some of his fellow Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians and credible, respected online security experts and others from outside the party.

However, crucial too have been the Lib Dem grassroots. The frequency of Julian’s posts on Lib Dem Voice on the topic give a clue about how successful party members were, on this issue at last, in persuading Nick Clegg and team about just how important this issue was to get right and that a bit of watering down of a bad idea wouldn’t be close to being enough.

Indeed, normally I’m complaining that the length of time between an item of news and an email from Nick Clegg or a minister about it is often measured in days. This time it was a matter of only a few hours – again a sign of how successfully the grassroots of the party had got the message over.

That grassroots pressure has been mobilised and expressed in many different ways, with one common theme – the internet. The pressure has not just been about the internet, it’s been made possible by the internet for without the way it makes it easy to share information, find fellow campaigners and to take action, the internal lobbying would have been too little, too late.

UPDATE: Here is Nick Clegg in the Telegraph – The ‘snoopers’ charter’ cannot go ahead.