We are being watched

[expat]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090810/...i-dba1618.html

Fears have been raised about the scale of the UK's "surveillance state" after it was revealed 1,500 requests to snoop on the public were made every day last year.

Councils, police and the intelligence services asked more than 500,000 times for approval to access private email and phone data, according to official figures.

England has gone from being one of the most liberal and private countries in the world, to one of the most controlled and spied-upon.

[DimPrawn]

Britain seemed alright to me before 1997.

I'm just trying to think what changed in 1997 that has led us to this state....

[EternalOptimist]

Britain seemed alright to me before 1997.

I'm just trying to think what changed in 1997 that has led us to this state....

grrrrrr.
David Davis needs to be brought back, given a medal and given a free hand.

[Menelaus]

It's a little cliche to say but watching V for Vendetta the other week it seemed worryingly a little closer to a documentary that one would otherwise feel comfortable with.

[RichardCranium]

It's a little cliche to say but watching V for Vendetta the other week it seemed worryingly a little closer to a documentary that one would otherwise feel comfortable with.

If anarchy is not your thing, try 1984:a much more stable society. Or Brave New World: life where everyone stars in TV's Big Brother.

Then read Sir Thomas More's Utopia and really weep.

[Lockhouse]

It's a little cliche to say but watching V for Vendetta the other week it seemed worryingly a little closer to a documentary that one would otherwise feel comfortable with.

....And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense....

Cliche?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Now, now Minestrone (who sounds very much like Incognito sometimes) will be along soon to say it's all for our own good and if we object we must be Luddites

[minestrone]

Now, now Minestrone (who sounds very much like Incognito sometimes) will be along soon to say it's all for our own good and if we object we must be Luddites

I wrote the software to do much of it.

[Menelaus]

....And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense....

Cliche?

I wish.

Was considering this at the weekend: the current government and PMandelson in particular are a far greater threat than the Taliban.

[expat]

Britain seemed alright to me before 1997.

I'm just trying to think what changed in 1997 that has led us to this state....

It didn't start then. Personally I remember well the Jamie Bulger case. When it was solved with CCTV footage, I remember thinking Oh Bugger, that's CCTV here to stay.

And that is what New Labour is especially good at: something brought in for one reason is then used for another, "for the publc good", and no-one argues that there is a higher good served by not spying on us.

And BTW (I say this with more sorrow than spite) it is England, not Britain. I do not have a easy answer as to why this should be - perhaps it is simply the greater population density in England that leads them earlier into this.