Ditch the draft Communications Bill now

The chances of me being invited to Downing Street for a cosy cup of tea are, in all likelihood, vanishingly small. Not that I mind one bit.

While I might nibble on a proffered jammy dodger, I'd have to turn down the cuppa, because I've come to suspect that there's something in the water at Number 10 that sends people doolally.

How else do you explain the Conservative party's decision to publish the draft Communications Bill?

In opposition, they rightly raged against the ludicrous web snooping proposals dreamt up the Labour party. But now, after two years in power, they're planning to introduce the most intrusive and ill-considered approach to internet regulation we've ever seen in this country. And that's no mean feat. We've had some stinkers before.

It seems almost inconceivable that as the general population begins waking up to online privacy, that as the ill-judged, if well meaning, cookie law comes in to effect, that as major technology firms such as Microsoft are willing to implement 'do not track' features in browsers, we have a government proposing to snoop into every corner of a person's online life simply because they can.

The home secretary has insisted that without forcing all internet service providers to keep records on everyone's internet activity, it will be impossible to keep up with web-savvy criminals and terrorists.

Typically, when governments want to impose routine mass surveillance on their population, they reassure us that their efforts are purely benign. It is only the guilty that have anything to fear.

It's that kind of thinking that has made the UK the global king of CCTV surveillance. I can't say I'd noticed the crime rates shrinking as a result.

But even if it were possible to ignore the civil liberty aspects of this preposterous proposal, it is so riddled with flaws that it should be shot down as quickly as possible.

One of the most obvious flaws in the draft Communication Bill is that it won't work, at least in its stated aims of catching IT-literate gangsters.

For those so minded, it will be relatively easy to render all the information the government proposes to keep useless. And the government knows this – it's been only too willing to champion the role technology has played in bringing down some repressive regimes or shining a spotlight on the activities of others.

However, if there's a silver lining here, it's that much has to happen before the draft Bill gets enacted.

Already MPs from all parties have voiced their concerns while industry groups such as the Internet Service Provider's Association and interested parties including the Information Commissioner's Office have also made their thoughts on the subject known. So there is plenty of scope for believing that the final Bill will not resemble the crackpot proposal we have today.

Nevertheless, regardless of what changes parliamentarians are able to bring to bear, it's hard to escape the feeling that the best thing all round would be to bin the proposals right now.