Time for the media shadow boxing to end, and for the democratic deficit in the expansion of the UK’s surveillance powers to be tackled

Since the Snowden revelations, the extent of the UK’s surveillance powers has come into sharp focus. This has been justified by the government and the security agencies themselves as being the necessary cost of freedom in an age of grave uncertainty and risk. Andrew Murray argues that the media ‘shadow boxing’ that has gone on about the latest proposed increase in security powers must come to an end, and that we now have an opportunity to tackle the yawning democratic deficit.