EU tsars rubbish Brit PM over attempt to delay beefed-up privacy rules

Sources close to EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding have dismissed reports suggesting her proposed overhaul to the bloc's data protection laws has been stalled, after Britain's Prime Minister appeared to have postponed the regulation. Late on Friday, the Financial Times reported that David Cameron had apparently convinced …

[Graham Marsden]

"Cameron's Conservative party have promised...

"...to hold a referendum on Britain's relationship with the EU after the general election of 2015, if they're elected with a majority"... in a desperate attempt to claw back the right wing extremist voters who are defecting to UKIP...

FTFY.

[JimmyPage]

Re: "Cameron's Conservative party have promised...

What's the saying "Fool me once ..."

ISTR a certain Cameron promising a referendum about the EU *after* an election in 2010.

When was it ?

[Busby]

Re: "Cameron's Conservative party have promised...

Is that the same Cameron that promised pre election no top down restructure of the NHS, then once in power proceeded to pass the profitable parts off to his mates and party donors?

[WonkoTheSane]

Re: "Cameron's Conservative party have promised...

2015 is after 2010, but then so is 2030.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Cameron's Conservative party have promised...

ISTR it was when they were in opposition and a promise of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty if they got into power before it was signed, but Gordon signed it, without a referendum.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: "Cameron's Conservative party have promised...

"ISTR a certain Cameron promising a referendum about the EU *after* an election in 2010."

Your jest rather presumes that he won the 2010 election. He didn't.

[James 51]

So the EU is protecting the British people from their own PM. What a topsy-turvy world we live in.

[John Smith 19]

"So the EU is protecting the British people from their own PM. What a topsy-turvy world we live in."

And that is not the first time either.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The inclusion of the word 'timely' allows now all Heads of State and government to go home and interpret this in their way: the majority (Tusk, Hollande, Letta) can say: 'timely means now, before the European Parliament elections next May', while Cameron can say: 'not before 2015'."

So what they're saying is "We put in some really ambiguous wording in so that everyone can go home and tell their people that they won, and when everyone reconvenes, they will be arguing about what timely actually means, so we can kick this down the road while maintaining the illusion of meaningful progress and continuing to provide cushty employment for lots of Euro-crats"?

Or am I being overtly cynical?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are...

Cameron is the villain here. He wanted to relax data protection quite recently, and is probably being lent on by the US. Reding on the other hand seems to have the public in mind. Not all Eurocrats are as two faced as a Eton boy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fair enough, I hope you're right... :)

[Not Fred31]

Maths problems maybe?

"The EC's vice president only tabled the proposed regulations in January 2012, yet she is hoping to the whole thing wrapped up in 2014."

So?

[bigtimehustler]

Re: Maths problems maybe?

Haha, indeed, 2 years seems too long for something to happen in my mind! About time someone wanted something done quicker than is the usual years of dragging it on

[Michael 28]

Facepalm moment?

Cameron may just have shot himself in the foot by ducking the privacy issue.

A LOT of grassroots support for an actual privacy tort / criminal legislation at the moment.

NSA/PRISM,

Facebook and google TOC's,

that recent story in the telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/10387658/Home-Office-go-home-texts-sent-to-people-with-right-to-remain.html)

... as well as speculative invoicers,

and revenge porn sites.

List goes on ... and on.

HMRC list of politicians expenses and bank accounts going public? we can only hope!

[WhoaWhoa]

"HMRC list of politicians expenses and bank accounts going public? we can only hope!"

It will happen. If the data's collected it will just as surely be mishandled.

That's when the politicos, slow beasts that they are, will finally realise that it is they who have the most to lose by snoop-enabling.

[Not That Andrew]

Well if the heads of HMRC keep on cutting cushy deals with tax evaders over expensive lunches and the Government keeps refusing to close the holes in the tax legislation, sooner or later a cheesed-off tax investigator is going to "lose" some embarrasing documents.