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0 pointsthrowaways8854y ago0 comments

As somebody who was somewhat in-favour of Brexit (not popular here, admittedly), my view is that it's easier to fight for privacy against just the UK government, rather than the entire EU bloc. I think if an entity as powerful as the EU puts this into legislation, it's game over.

I have a similar view on federal laws in the United States - they don't tend to repeal federal surveillance laws without violence.

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estaseuropano4y ago

But every member has a veto. You never needed to convince 28 countries, you only needed to convince your own government to vote against. Plenty of laws stuck in limbo because one country doesn't like it - but exactly zero laws on the books that sosme country really hates.

pyuser5834y ago

That’s systems leads to compromises and quod pro quos. That’s not as likely with just one nation state.

If Country A wanted strong privacy laws and Country B wanted strong surveillance laws, and both have a veto, then you’ll get paralysis or a compromise.

Right now it seems the EU has neither strong encryption as the norm nor a massive surveillance system. Just what one would expect when any nation can veto a law.

Now that the UK is independent, it no longer has the paralysis/compromise/status quo dilemma.

dkshdkjshdk4y ago

> Now that the UK is independent, it no longer has the paralysis/compromise/status quo dilemma.

...so they can now pass all the strong surveillance laws they want without being hindered by the EU?

My point: "paralysis" can be good if it prevents you from doing something bad. Perhaps forcing a "compromise" actually leads to (better) solutions that account for everyone's concerns?

Overall, it is not clear to me that the UK becoming independent from EU is going to necessarily lead to better laws. Are they going to be easier and faster to pass? Sure. Are they going to be better? Not so sure.

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zajio1am4y ago

> But every member has a veto.

No, most EU legislation is decided on by ordinary legislative procedure, using qualified majority voting rules in council of EU ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_the_Council_of_the_E... ).

throwaways885OP4y ago

How does a group of citizens get a motion tabled to repeal mass surveillance laws in the EU? Just by sheer scale, it's harder to get the attention of the EU than it is the UK government.

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