INDEX	October 20, 2022
Government loads blunderbuss to catch foreign spies, but will it shoot itself in the foot? New legislation is going to force people in the UK who work for foreign governments to declare their status. I think this is going to be tricky. Take for example EDF, the nationalised French energy company. Are the people who are employed by this company actually working? And suppose they are working but are based in India (or somewhere similar) as many are, will they still be forced to register? Perhaps the government intends to publish a list of countries it regards as hostile and only employees of state enterprises from those countries will be covered. But this too is tricky. What about Saudi Arabia, for example? Will it be on the list? Surely it is one of our firmest friends? Yet if you look at the record of middle east terrorism in the UK most of it is said to be linked to Bin Laden (a Saudi) or al qaeda, an organisation with roots in Saudi Arabia. The problem with catch all legislation like this is that it looks powerful and draconian, until you actually get to apply it and then you discover that really what you need to do is stick to the original criminal code. If people break the law then they should be punished. If you just think they might have broken the law but you don't know how or why, catch all legislation may seem appealing but in reality it may be the government that gets caught out.
Foreign Influence Registration Scheme to make clandestine political activity illegal	https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-influence-registration-scheme-to-make-clandestine-political-activity-illegal
UK to criminalise undeclared foreign influence in politics (FT, you may need to pay)	https://www.ft.com/content/80d9dcbd-766f-4fce-9617-478868738575
UK to introduce 'foreign agent registration' (Turkish web site)	https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/uk-to-introduce-foreign-agent-registration/1919217
INDEX Jonathan Brind		October 20, 2022