Anyone reading this from the UK: don't lose hope. You can change things. The recent uptick in fascism in the UK is really disheartening but your voice needs to be heard.
For example, they tried to bring in censorship in Australia and failed. Change is possible. Don't be a pushover. You must fight.
They're not looking for actual terrorists or criminals. They're looking for people like Occupy Wall Street protesters, who actually pose a threat (ie. redistribution of wealth) to those in power. Then as soon as they do something like pirate a movie, they can be thrown in jail (ie politically neutered).
Democracies can fail, for example the recent rise of Erdogan. Asshats in power want democracy to fail because when it does they will be the ones in power.
This is not true, for instance say you're an oppressive government and have a method to decrypt encryption type X (https, E2E encryption or what-have-you). There's only so many times you can use your decryption alg for evil purposes before someone leaks that you have it. Https is infinitely better than http, E2E encryption is infinitely better than nothing.
They're not looking for actual terrorists, otherwise the SMS's would have triggered a response. They're looking for people like Occupy Wall Street protesters, who actually pose a threat (ie. redistribution of wealth) to those in power.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Mozilla Foundation
University of Michigan