The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) of MPs has published its report into China’s influence on Britain, and it doesn’t make for easy reading. According to the dossier, the UK government has “no strategy” to tackle the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, and Britain is now “severely handicapped” by its “short-termist approach” to taking Chinese cash without asking too many questions. The report is scathing: in no uncertain terms, it claims China has “successfully penetrated every sector of the UK’s economy”…
Just days after a Chinese spy was accused of “infiltrating” Parliament with ease, the ISC inquiry says Whitehall’s response to this sort of espionage has been “completely inadequate“:
China’s size, ambition and capability have enabled it to successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s economy… The government has been so keen to take Chinese money that it has not been watching China’s sleight of hand whilst it overtly penetrated the UK’s energy and industry sectors… the government has no strategy on China, let alone an effective one, and that it was singularly failing to deploy a ‘whole-of-government’ approach – a damning appraisal indeed.”
Sounds like the CCP is more than just “an epoch-defining challenge”, as Rishi has claimed…
Read the full report here (warning: it is 200 pages long).
Asked by Peter Bone whether the Government is planning on continuing its “hissy fit“ over the election of Julian Lewis to the Intelligence and Security Committee by blocking his appointment, Rees-Mogg dodged the question, instead accusing the new chair of “playing ducks and drakes” with Labour to usurp the Government’s wishes. Further No. 10 shenanigans will not go down at all well with the Tory old guard…
The recently released Intelligence and Security Committee into privacy and security attempted to smear a group of civil liberty organisations by leaving out a key part of evidence given to the Committee by Big Brother Watch and Liberty. The report astonishingly replaced 68 key words spoken by Dr Eric Metcalfe of Liberty with just “…”, an omission leaving the impression that when Emma Carr of Big Brother Watch said the word “yes“, she was agreeing with a question posed by the Chair of the Committee and not, as was the case, the statement given by Dr Metcalfe. The missing section provided clear context for Emma’s response which has been consequently misrepresented in newspapers today.
By cutting out the 68 key words actually spoken the Committee’s report gave the impression that Big Brother Watch thought terrorism was the price of freedom. You can read the ISC’s underhand spinning attempt in full here and Big Brother Watch’s letter rebutting their uncorrected reporting here [pdf].
