Re: It's not nesessary the evil
"no difficulty listing three or four examples related specifically to telecommunications provisions"
OK, I'm sure some of our US cousins can give you examples from the Patriot act, but as the article is about UK laws, here's some examples of the British government abusing it's powers as regards telecommunications:
1) The Met used RIPA to pull the phone records of a journalist, to discover the identity of a source who was making the police look bad:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/02/plebgate-met-phone-records-sun-tom-newton-dunn
Note that there was never any hint of terrorism in this case, or indeed any other kind of threat. the RIPA bill was used as that gave the police access without going through a judge.
2) Kent police did the same with another journalist, who had written stories that lead to the disgrace of an MP:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/second-police-force-admits-using-ripa-spy-journalists-phone-records-and-out-confidential-sources
(when police forces were asked how often this happened, they refused saying it was at "matter of national security")
3) Animal right activists were forced to turn over passwords to computers:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/14/ripa_encryption_key_notice/
And a whole pdf full of some more:
http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/TheGrimRIPA.pdf
And this is just abuses of RIPA.
(And while we're on the subject, let's not forget the The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 1974, which was supposed to be a temporary measure with a shelf life of 6 months, and was extended, and extended, before finally being made permanent in 1989, despite the threat [the IRA] that it was designed to combat ceasing to be a danger.)