Tuesday, 4th August 2009
Struan Stevenson condemns the government’s ‘big brother’ state
Dear Sir,
I wholeheartedly support the internet firms that have condemned the government’s ‘Big Brother’ surveillance plans as an intrusion into people’s privacy.
Twelve years in power and Labour has moved Britain relentlessly towards becoming an authoritarian state.
We have more CCTV cameras in Britain than the whole of Europe put together. We saw an anti-war protestor arrested for reading out a list of war dead at the Cenotaph in 2006. We saw an 82-year old Jewish escapee from the Nazis being manhandled out of Labour's annual conference for daring to yell "nonsense" at the foreign secretary. We've seen the attempts to introduce ID cards despite widespread opposition. In the name of national security, our civil liberties are being systematically eroded.
Powers that were granted to the government on the understanding that they would only ever be used to protect us from terrorists and gangsters are going far beyond that. All aspects of our lives are being monitored. Now hidden cameras can even be placed on your rubbish bins!
The growth of the police state in Britain has reached an unprecedented scale. The erosion of our personal liberties is intolerable. We must roll back this tide of intrusion.
Yours faithfully,
Struan Stevenson MEP
