http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4882622.ece
I was born in 1984, a year which was also the title of George Orwell's dystopian classic. In the year of my birth, Britain was a long way from the society that novel predicted. Those who feared it might come true could breathe relief as they considered the imperfect, but basically free, place that was their home.
So far, I have been undecided about the planned introduction of ID cards. I felt that those who thought they signalled the start of a Big Brother style dictatorship were overreacting. I have an Alien Resident Card in South Korea. I don't feel oppressed by having to carry it around, though I do worry I'll lose it when I'm pissed. It's an encumbrance, but it's not fascism.
This week, though, when searching for a discussion article for class, I came across a Times report that definitely signals a step too far. I already knew that the ID card scheme would involve storing everybody's data on a National Information Register, I already knew that the government had been trying to increase periods for detention without trial, I was already aware that Parliament kept on proposing laws that undercut liberty, usually under the guise of 'anti-terrorism measures.'
But the new proposals make the above look like drops in the water. The government plan to place a 'live tap' on every electronic communication device in Britain. This will mean that phone calls , emails and Internet histories will all become available to the authorities without them needing special permission.
What the hell is happening? How would the British public have reacted ten years ago if the Government announced they would tap every phone call in the country? Have we become so blinded by this threat of terrorism that we are prepared to allow the government to do anything at all to stop it?
The death of 52 people on July 7th, 2005 was a tragedy. The death of innocent people in the prime of their lives is always a tragedy. But the people who were blown up on that day in London died free, with their basic human rights and liberties protected by the law of Britain, a country which prides itself on free speech, and basic privacy and liberty for all it's citizens.
Even if the new measures will stop terrorism, and I doubt that they will (after all, terrorists will still be able to plot by spoken word, and from abroad) I would rather face the tiny risk to my life terrorist attacks pose than give up my basic liberties. Even if the current government doesn't use it's new powers in a negative way, such overreaching rights pave the path for an unjust government to abuse its' position.
Allowing the government to watch our every move is not the way to a safer society. I feel less threatened on the streets of India, Cambodia or Korea than I do after dark in the UK, a country with more CCTV than any other in the world. Britain won't change drastically overnight , but if we shrug our shoulders at every new method of tracking our actions, how long before the notion of privacy becomes a memory?
