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By Sally Watson, 5 December 2000 15:32

NEWS An old-school Tory may not have been an obvious choice to become the human rights activists' favourite, but Lord Cope won praise for his work in amending the government's Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill. "I'm astonished to be receiving an award," Lord Cope admitted to the audience. Lord Cope, with the help of other peers like Liberal Democrat Lord McNally, pushed through a number of key amendments to the Bill during its passage through the House of Lords. "I started off with the proposition it is necessary that police should be able to tap emails," he said. "But it's very important that they can only do it with the proper safeguards." The awards provide the chance to heckle the villains and praise the heros of the British privacy lobby. The villains of the night included the National DNA Database and Home Secretary Jack Straw who picked up the Lifetime Menace award. Last year's winner, the Home Office, escaped vilification this year, but not before organiser Simon Davies had received three phone calls from a worried government press office wanting to know the result in advance. The Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union received recognition for raising awareness of surveillance in the workplace and Foundation for Information Policy Research director Caspar Bowden also won an award for work on RIP. Former MI5 agent and co-presenter of the Big Brother awards, David Shayler, said he hoped to encourage a general debate about privacy. "The problem in Britain is that civil liberties and human rights have been perceived as something to do only with the left," he said. "Human rights can be sexy if you're talking about invasion of privacy or free speech. Those are issues which should be of concern to everybody in this country."