Saturday 7 February 2009

UK surveillance state eroding free society...

... according to a House of Lords committee:

"The expansion in the use of surveillance represents one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of the Second World War. Mass surveillance has the potential to erode privacy. As privacy is an essential pre-requisite to the exercise of individual freedom, its erosion weakens the constitutional foundations on which democracy and good governance have traditionally been based in this country."

The recommendations of the committee, such as a review of the much-vaunted crime-fighting capabilities of CCTV and limitations on RIPA, the Act which allows local councils to use anti-terror laws against you if you're late returning a library book, would certainly be a step in the right direction, but it's not going to influence the sick, voyeuristic control-freaks who comprise the government - surveillance, control and power over the citizens is what they live for, it is the reason they got into government.

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