Hello everybody, you are all basically Government property, subjects of rule, the "strong and great" will always rule the weak and useless and "levy taxes" and dish out punishments accordingly, soon you will be arrested and "dissapeared" with some excuse or another for commenting online like me here

John Smith, Glasgow, Government property, UK

Apart from the thrill Labour gets from ever enslaving its citizens I strongly suspect the motive behind this latest intrusion is financial. Spendthrift Labour are bankrupt, both morally and fiancially. Commercial enterprises will pay handsomly for accurate personal profiles of our citizens.

Guy Staniland, Oxford,

David Icke warned of this coming more than 15 years ago hence that is why his presentation in hull that he did lasting 3 hours all in a concise,intelligent ,and open way and in no way boring is the most watched and circulated video on the internet.I am neither a conspiracy theorist or anarchist.

john, rothesay, scotland

Hey, don't kid yourselves as this is already in place. After studying chemtrails and the North American Union; I am under constant surveillance, have been followed, chased on foot, phone lines cut and computer hacked by Critical Intervention Services headquartered in my town of Clearwater, FL.

Pamela Marks, RN, Clearwater, USA

I suggest that the EU directive refers to interoperability of systems not the forming of yet another database which is another example of the inadequate levels of intelligence existing at the top to be able to interpret policy development. I refer to work undertaken by Jisc for example.

A Laws, selby, uk

Relax everyone! The Government may be intent on 'processing' its citizens from individuals into compliant drones and blocked all means of legitimate protest - but there are things which can be done: Swap phones with friends, send letters instead of emails - but most importantly, USE YOUR VOTE

Max, Leeds,

Soon half the country will be employed to watch the other half...
We have to find causes of problems and not effects...

Manos, London, UK

The thought police are already here, think about it!

If we all adopt the word 'bomb', meaning something positive, then the thought police will be totally confused.

'I hope this comment goes like a bomb.'

Dave Kinsley, Derby, UK

Dont "run away" from the Britain!!

We need to sort our own country out, it's no good emigrating and coming back when you've left it to the brave people to sort out, your not British if you run!

Have some spine and stand up for your country and liberties, the threat is domestic this time!!!

Andrew , North, England,

It's like "V for Vendetta" is about to become the reality of Britain. Next is the Thought Police.

Scott MacDonald, Sundre, Canada

I will just stop using mobiles and internet
i will write letters and read books instead
I will watch more tv and go to concerts
I wont bother with the net.

If they start opening my mail I will leave the UK.

andy, London, UK

There is only one problem

When the electricity gets turned off for a few hours every day as it will come the next few years then where will the electronics work?

Time to get out of Britain.. while you still can

Henry North, London, UK

Eleanor of Yorkshire, you're exactly right! Maybe it's not a serious attempt to turn us into mindless drones, it's only lazy people finding a way out of work! Like every government worker at every level! That makes me feel much better, for some sad reason. Human folly/flaw, not meant to control.

PJWrites, Clearwater, USA

Surveillance cameras on every corner, 1000's of speed cameras making even careful drivers paranoid, a ban on protests anywhere near the seat of government and now a database of virtually every form of personal communication! These Stalinistic control freaks must go - and soon.

Oxford Don, Oxford, UK

We knew of this in 1987.

So many people were asleep, and handed over our power to the Gov.

They are OUR SERVANTS.!!!

We are not theirs.

We pay their wages.

We are the majority, so we vote them out fast.

V For Vendetta springs to mind.

Lady Portia, London, UK

Try "Ghost Surf" it hides your IP address and routes your data through annonymous hubs

dave gorman, stowbridge, uk

And I bet the project overruns, goes over budget, is full of bugs and somebody leaves the database on a seat in McDonalds. The phrase sledgehammer and nuts comes to mind. It's not about terrorism, it's about controlling the populace. I'll start encrypting my e-mails, now where's my copy of PGP?

Ron, Milton Keynes, Bucks

Look out for who owns shares in the company that writes the database program. They will go up faster than the cost of doing it.

Ron, Milton Keynes, Bucks

Vive la Revolution !

Howard, London, UK

Your answer is to make Jeremy Clarkson Prime Minister.

paul, Milton Keynes,

"In russian they use tax fraud to 'get' people who dare to have an opinion"
Please, visit Russia and do not read the news about.

Hassan, Doha,

I wish I could be part of that public project. 100M per year for 10 years - what a moneyspinner. 3 years consultancy. 1 year feasibility study. 2 years planning, 1 years development, then it gets cancelled.

George, Watford, UK

Setting aside the very good arguments on cost and practicability the real issue is that the state exisits to serve the people, the people do not exist to serve the state!

George Brittain, York,

People Should not fear their governments - Governments should fear their people.

Adam Bastock, Rugby,

Can someone say THE BEAST has arrived !!

Natalia, Philadelphia, United States

Cripes! So the Government will know about my frequent visits to Tranmere Rovers websites and when I don't fancy going to see a particular chick flick that my wife fancies? Pity the poor civil servant who gets that job!

David Sindall, London,

Interesting comment from China of all places but never the less very apt.

mike gee, bournemouth, uk

Look this country was built by blood and the word of God,and as it was said long ago give me liberty or give me death.This is the land of freedom,its wrong for your fear to invade the privacy of others,whats next a wall all around USA.

Dwayne, kokomo, USA

Where is your human right?
Where is your democracy?

Pal, Daqing, China

I am reminded of the movie, "V for Vendetta."

Matt, San Diego, California, USA

There are some talented engineers roaming around the UK that can trash this alleged system without too much difficulty..

juan valdez, mission viejo, us

A guy I know worked for IBM years ago. He told me that this stuff has been in place for years. It was my assumption that phone calls and Internet traffic were stored for 6 months already.

Same thing in the States by the way, so I wouldn't get too smug over there.

Martin, Solihull,

The database already exists, all this is is an attempt to legalise its usage. Data mining of files saved in plain text is relatively easy. These techniques quietly and effectively allow security services to monitor suspects. The price of the freedom we have in the UK is surveillance, not nice, oh...

Adrian, Hitchin, UK

Gemma, I agree.

A lovely young man was brutally killed in our town last Autumn.

Right under the eye of a CCTV camera which had recently been installed.

Guess what, it was switched off...

Why? It was only on a trial period, and it had been decided that it was too expensive to operate.

Louise , Mirfield, West Yorkshire, uk

If Google has their way, this database won't be needed. They seem determined to stop access to email (again). How can Google possibly hope to grow when they cannot even provide a reliable email facility?

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This country has never had the freedoms we all aspire to, there is a law to cover every eventuality if those in power so choose to use them. Our strongest argument is direct action en mass (The French know this) , the trouble is the sheep have been so used to being rounded up they refuse to move.

mike gee, bournemouth, uk

Here's a radical idea - why don't we change our Foreign Policy.

That has massively more chance of reducing "terrorism" (i.e. people responding to us invading/bombing their country) than putting us under total surveillance.

Clive, Surrey,

Have you reduced the amount of space for comments?

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Now living in Australia - the land of the free...I'd fully reccomend it!

Victoria, Sydney,

Welcome to 1984!!!

Scott, Aberdeen,

At Last an excuse for losing excess baggage.

I can stop using the following items:

My Computer
My Phone
My Bank
My Car

Gordon has lost the plot once again and like mugs we stand for it.

mike, leeds,

It would help if Gordon Brown gives me his email address, I can then forward every email I receive to him to browse at his leisure. This will also save him doing it covertly. Of course, I will want to see all of his emails as well!

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Working closey with an ISP, they have calculated that 1 month storage of all emails and web pages visited would equal aproximately a petabyte of storage space (1 petabyte is 1000 terrabytes!) That is one ISP and for one month! - How on earth does the government plan to store these volumes of data?

Ben, Newbury,

Somebody mentioned encryption to preserve our privacy. It's a good thing the terrorists don't know what that means...

jite, london,

in America, the government still trusts the citizens with self defense (except for the antiguns liberals) any criminal found in my house will be lucky to live to see the police.

British citizens have been disarmed by their governmnet, adn now they are lossing all privacy.

dave, redwood, USA

It's a joke, but then again so are we!

Fuel prices, stealth taxes, etc, we all comlain about them but no one actually sticks together and gets something done about it.

We're being walked all over every day by the govt, but hey, no one seems to care enough to fight them. Whats that all about?

J Carnochan, Scotland,

We may have the highest concentration of CCTV cameras but guess what - they are pretty much useless unless you get stabbed or murdered! After reporting vandalism to my car, with a witness who saw the guy who did it, police refused to check CCTV footage until threated with media exposure ..........

Gemma, Notts,

..there were 3 cameras watching the area my car was in , a witness gave us a time period. Unfortunately, we weren't surprised..... after a previous incident we got info under the freedom act - amount of times police had checked CCTV footage for any crime in our area ever = zero!

Gemma, Notts,

Yet another example of a Government who's forgotten that they serve the public and a public so apathetic that the government can get away with it. Save the money, Gordy and spend it on something the public needs like education or healthcare.

J. Duff, London, UK

Lee, Stuart, Clare etc:
I'm glad you're certain you have nothing to hide. I hope you're equally certain all your friends/family have nothing to hide, that your identitiy hasn't yet been stolen and that no-one dislikes you enough to use a string of false data to fit you up for a crime you didn't do

Jago, southampton,

Outraged so I looked up my local (Labour) MP's website to express my concern. Unfortunately I found that she openly admits to being an admirer of the East German social system. Oh dear.

Ruth, Cumbernauld, UK

I cannot believe this is even being considered. It is not needed nor feasible nor helpful.
The volume of info for one database has never been done.
Would anyone ever find anything in it?
How could you ensure security and be sure that the info that was being retrieved was actually sent?

W J Kruszynska, Lyhtam St Annes, UK

Its ridiculous that this should even be considered. The government has trouble dealing with small tasks and keeping small amounts of data secure, imagine the possibilities to terrorists or criminals if they somehow got access to billions of different data, the effect would be catastrophic.

Dan Howard, Ladysmith, BC, Canada

The only terrorists you will catch with be the “really stupid” ones.
I remember the old days of book ciphers. (Page, line, word)
Here in the USA the drug dealers would use them on the phone to send covert messages back in the 80’s.
Without knowing the book and the code you have nothing.

mindy, Santa Clara, USA

Here's a clever idea. Imagine you're a terrorist. When you phone your terrorist friends, instead of saying 'plant the bomb', say 'plant the apple.'
How will MI5 know that 'apple' means 'bomb'?
Good thing that terrorists are too stupid to think of that.
Isn't it?

p hechter, Boston, UK

A lot of anger has, quite rightly, been expressed in this column.

However, this latest attack on the British people is a drop in the ocean compared to the horrors of the database state that New Labour hopes to impose on us after the next general election.

See www.no2id.net for further details.

Brian Drury, London Colney, USSE

Terrorists have won!

jayil, london, uk

For those of you who wish to circumvent this system the answer is simple:

When sending email encrypt them. There are plenty of free solutions.

When browsing the net use 'Tor'. Tor needs a bit of work to setup properly but in essence can completely hide your data and where you are connecting to.

Paul Sullivan, Chester, Good ol' UK

David: "It doesnt matter who is in 'power' ... the agenda is still served, when will we wake up to he falshood of it all."

Well it does matter. It's vital to know specifically which individuals are behind the agenda of which you speak, so that their plans can be derailed. More details please.

Adam, Hastings, UK

It is about time that we stood up to be counted, we have an elected government that is far from transparent, our elected representative look after themselves. It is time for the English to reclaim our freedoms, time to say enough to those politicians who forget they are civil "servants"

Geoff Ambrose, Southampton,

I suggest that the establishment takes time out to read a poem.
The Secret People
by G.K.Chesterton
It ends---
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.

Geoff Ambrose, Southampton,

Our american cousins seem to be unaware that their library loans are monitored already. You'd better take that book you borrowed on "How to make bombs and blow people up" back before the FBI comes knocking on your door. Security, schmecurity.

Michele John, Saumur, France

watch Zeitgeist the movie, your rights are slowly diminishing.
be afraid.. be very afraid

mike, wrexham, Wales

This Government can not keep the data they have on the public without loosing it - so what chance do they have of keeping phone/text messages,e-mails and surfing habits etc.
How long will it be before those records are Lost,stolen left on a PC and NICKED??????

Allan Pointon, Stafford, UK

I'm sure we could cut the risk of terrorism and crime by insisting that there be a camera and bug in every house, but where does this logic end? If these measures succeed the government would be collecting more information on supposedly 'free' people than the Stasi did in East Germany.

Christian, Canterbury, UK

Why does the government think we would prefer to be safe than free? The US had to choose between the two before now: when they chose to rebel against the English. They chose to uphold their freedoms and liberties rather than remain lorded over and remain safe. I'd be free over safe any day.

Nick Burns, Nottingham,

This plan will never get approved. Contrary to what many people think, Parliament isn't crazy. They didn't go with the extension on holding people without charge, and they sure as heck won't go through with this. It's just a random committee with stupid crazy ideas.

Zhou Fang, Cambridge,

This is what the public deserve though isnt it?

"don't worry about it dear, it's not that bad"
"don't think about it dear, it'll all go away"

Good old British mediocrity.

simon, oxford, uk

travelling from england back to denmark earlier this year and I had 4 jars of quality peanut butter removed from my luggage by customs. I was raised and taught that 'WE WILL NEVER GIVE INTO TERRORISM'. When asked at what density a substance must be to qualify as a liquid i was threatened with arrest

julian, aarhus, denamrk

Seems strange that the government plan to keep these records for up to 4 years. They couldn't keep Tony Blairs expense account for more 2 DAYS after it was announced that they should show these documents to the public. Cyanical... ?You betcha.

Alan, London,

i was taught at school that the former russian union was bad because: everything you say is monitored, everywhere you go is monitored, everything you do is monitored and descent of your country's regime is an imprisonable offence. well, surprise surprise.

julian, aarhus, denamrk

We've lost the right to silence; the right to trial by jury; 42 day detention erodes habeas corpus; it is an offense not to hand over passwords when requested now the gov seek to have direct access to everything we write or read online and who we call. Sleepwalking? It's time we woke up!!!

Richard, Crossford, UK

This would have made Stalin green with envy. What is it that goes on in Nu Labour heads? Their totalitarian streak is very strong.

Dave, Wrexham,

This is getting ridiculous. Whats ever will be next? I looks as if I will soon become one of many to emigrate.

Graham , Cardiff, Wales

I hope that the TIMES collects all 300+ comments and send them to 10 Downing Street.

M. Cawdery, Portadown, Co. UK, EU

Steve - easy. Everything transcribes down to text, & run grep over it. Grep searches for a list of terms. Any phonecalls, emails, etc, etc, that match, dump the correspondents to a watch list. Once you're on the watch list it's a simple matter to get you under house arrest or detained without charge

Matt, Inverness,

This is unbelievable, soon there will be cameras that watch you taking a number 2 that will be fed all the way to MI5 Headquarters.

Ridiculuous, I have never heard of a more fundamental disregard for privacy and human rights than this.

Sam, Newbury,

I find it interesting that the opening comments;
AP Bath says 'always more than meets the eye with Labour.'
Adam Hastings, Do they think they will still be in power to advance this.

It doesnt matter who is in 'power' ... the agenda is still served, when will we wake up to he falshood of it all.

David, Newcastle,

The only thing that has changed is that it is now technically possible to monitor all communications, opening everyone post was not possible to it was targeted at those under suspicion.

John Dyer, Reading,

This is about population monitoring and control not fighting terrorism. The technology already exists to avoid detection via PAYG, proxies and encrpytion. Another pointless policy from Labour. They really are a bit confused. Why have they not noticed they cannot afford to loose anymore votes!!

John, Inverness,

I'm outraged.

My uncles and grandparents fought in two world wars to guarantee our future freedoms which are being legislated away from under our noses as I type.

Along with excessive taxation, this will ensure that Labour spends the next twenty years a fringe opposition party. Rightly so.

Paul, London, National Socialist UK

And we wonder why we don't get a referendum?

ian, London, UK

This is worse tham anything the Russians imposed on their population in the Cold War. And the UK would complain all the time about that. Now we are to have worse here in the UK. this isn't monitoring terrorism, it is a blatant invasion of civil liberty and should be resisted very strongly.

Nigel Peacock, Crowborough, East Sussex

this is not really to fight terroism or crime? theres plenty of ways of communicating with out being heard and the gov knows this which is worrying! this is a law set to dupe the average joe... its time to leave the country....

MM, Manchester, UK

To combat crime and terrorism? Absolute codswallop!
This just another part of the Liebour Party's totalitarian jigsaw for control of the masses.
Perhaps the time has come for a campaign of civil disobedience to stop this latest bright idea in its tracks?

Bob Christie, Fife, Scotland

The illusion that the English government had protected its citizens by disarming them seemed credible because few realized the country had an astonishingly low level of armed crime even before guns were restricted. A government study for the years 1890-92, for example, found only three handgun homicides, an average of one a year, in a population of 30 million. In 1904 there were only four armed robberies in London, then the largest city in the world.

Peter Morson, leicester, UNunited kingdom

If you have nothing to hide then what's the issue? The police/special branch can already pretty much track the movements of anyone they want anyway, so is this really any different to how we live now?

I'd be surprised if Telecommunications companies didn't hold telephone records anyway.

Sam, Portsmouth, UK

George Orwells 1984 looms closer everyday!

Neville Scollop, Munich, Germany

Next they will keep records of all post sent by snail mail!
They really are neurotic!

Dave Jackson, Norwich, UK

What are the government so scared of.
Get on with harumphing in the house of commons and leave us alone. No one want to live in Orwell's 1984...
If we all didn't vote for anyone could we not just turn the HP into a TV show and then film them instead??

Scott McKinlay, london, UK

You have to have more than two brain cells to rub together to come up with an idea like this.
Where did they find all these brainy people with full 3 brain cells?

Dick, Hong Kong,

We mustn't forget that America wants to know what you're getting up too! And as America's spy and saboteur in the E.U. Britain must carry out Uncle Sam's bidding - re-routing the intel it gets via such systems as 'Echelon', etc.

John Roberts, Rawmarsh, United Kingdom

For your own and international security,Brits! Gotta to learn to be watched. You'll get used!
I think that these terrorrists are not that nuts to stick on modern communications. That's easily trackable!!!
My guess is that they rely on hand to hand mail carriers like in older times.

Florence Messi, Rockville, USA

The economy is a mess, the country is overrun with foreign criminal gangs operating with impunity, healthcare and education are in chaos, drugs are flooding into our country etc etc. Solution - criminalise the general population. I just can't wait for the next election to get rid of these charlatans

Tony(Labour Supporter), london, uk

So glad I got the hell out of the UK before it was too late lol...

Wonder how long till they'll bring surveilence cameras and bugs into your houses?

All your lives are belong to us! :D

Ren, Madrid, Spain

This was tried by Labour a few years back and it was rightly kicked out. Terrorists will circumvent through encryption. Meaning the only people who have privacy are the criminals and the people who are viewed with suspicion are the law-abiding. Labour is removing our freedoms for the terrorists

Ben Robinson, Brighton,

britain the next china

human rights, right out the window (sorry for the bad pun)

to my fellow Briths on this forum post see you in jail in a few year when the goverment has 100% controll over our every action our only crime will be free thinking

Mark, Edinburgh, Scotland

Wouldn't criminals or terrorists just start speaking in code?

I doubt they would send emails saying "should we stop at the little chef before or after our robbery of the bak on the high street?"

Matthew McPherson, Burnley,

Sounds like the old USSR to me.

Looks like we are going forward.......... well to some where.



Nemo

Jon Nemo, Llanelli, UK

We have been lied to over and over by our Government who are reckless with our personal data. Why should we trust them to hold more information about us??

There is always more than meets the eye with Labour and I would like to know the real reasons they want this information....

Andy Pandy, Bath, UK

i agree with the comment about the US having been doing this for at least 5 years. people really need to get out of this mode in which they think the government are doing all this for your safety because the sad fact is that what's happening now in the US and UK is what happened in 1930's germany.

simon lomax, warrington, uk

What kind of political party reveals a clearly unpopular proposal like this in the run-up to an essential byelection? Do they in their wildest dreams think they'll still be in power to actually go ahead with this? And who are these unnamed "officials" who dream up such hare-brained schemes? A joke.

Adam, Hastings, UK

Let's hold Gordon Brown and all his ministers personally accountable for the loss of our freedoms and the massive waste of taxpayer's funds when they are finally kicked out of office. It seems a reasonable threat on this incompetent bunch and it just may put them off this whole idea.

richard, Effingham, Surrey, England

Can I say this socalled "spying system" already exists. lol. its called Echelon and is a series of station across the globe to monitor emails and phone calls. See
http://wrhstore.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/ECHELON/echelon.html

I dont care if they listen or not, they do anyway

Jim, liverpool, england

To those who say we're sleepwalking into a surveillance society: no we're not. We're wide awake and know only too well that the Labour party is our enemy. The only people sleepwalking are those who continue to vote for it (ie a rapidly decreasing minority). And anyone who emigrates is no true Brit!

Adam, Hastings, UK

For the doubters of technological capability; please have a look at what Google is doing and tell me it's not possible ...

It is very possible to profile you. In fact online advertisement companies are already doing it, and the technology is improving.

You are nothing more than earmarked sheep.

Nicholas, London, UK

it smells of conspiracy secret government and nothing of this sort is to be done to free people and free country.

see the END GAME documentry. you will learn something.

atta, london, the UK

This is disgusting and disgraceful!.all vestiges of democracy seem to have evaporated in this country. The government thinks its above the law and has no care for what citizens think. Having read about the EU treaties I am also extremely concerned about what will unfold,I don't want to emigrate but,

Josh, Manchester, England

The on-going descent towards a fascist, big brother, orwellian prison continues.
I am organising a massive protest in the capital, so the voice of the people can be heard. There is a unanimous clear message that FREEDOM WILL PREVAIL.. It is time to be an active citizen now. Speak Up. Be Heard.

Naylor , London,

I am amazed that so many do not realize that this has been going on- Europe wide and more, for the past two decades.
Don't you know about the activities of Menwith Hill, Harrogate?

Ameriican commentators: You should investigate futher, all your communications are curently monitored and recorded.

John Bayldon, Harrogate, North York's

It looks like we are all going back to the days when we contacted people by letter!

Geraldine, Batley, U.K.

The cost versus benefit of such a massive operation is very doubtful. Once in place, terrorist cells (if that's the main reason) will find ways around it or exploit it. This measure will not prevent terrorism.

Peter, Orton, England

We should have a March for Freedom to Parliament Square, but that's not allowed any more either is it

Huw, West Sussex, England

Can I ask... dare I? What exactly will this data be used for. "Crime and terrorism" - these are very broad terms, what kind of terrorism, what crimes? This is very alarming, I would be a less concerned if they intended to do this for known criminals and suspected terrorists... George Orwell anyone?

Ryan Shaw-Harrison, Mexborough, Doncaster, UK

The deal is this.conformists that is what the u.k. is made of .we have been conditioned for something like this for centuries,but we will be dignified about it and set an example for the rest of the world to follow by.as its your turn next.
conformists dont carry guns.

tracey , derbyshire, orwellsville

I emigrated to France in February. I am still waiting for the road tax refund on my car! But the DVLA TV ads claim they know if your car is taxed and will crush it if not.

This data base is just another government scheme to increase employment without doing anything useful. - Like HIPS.

Michael Gosling, Bordeaux, France

We saw this coming and left 2 years ago..

Catherine, Rome, Italy

There's a lot of people from the US making comments about this and stating that it's sad to see Britain go this way. Might I remind our American friends that in the US these measures are also being implemented. The governemnt can conduct warrantless wiretaps in the US without permission.

jackie, Athens,

Did anyone see the drama series 'The Last Enemy' on the BBC a few months ago. Although far fetched, it would appear to be the direction we're heading.

Sam, Durham, UK

I think Britain is taking this Oceania bit a little too seriously.

Kyle, Monroe, NY, USA

Track record says they can't guarantee keeping data securely or protect us from subsequent fraud from loosing it; so can we trust the not to expose us to more risk of fraud? There is also a question of invasion of privacy; does the government hold a record of all parcels and letters, same concept?

K Patel, London, UK

Data would be better left in a distributed form with the various ISPs. Why not have them all agree to provide a common way for the Home Office to access that distributed data?

The HO has enough problems securely looking after the data it already has.

Gary, Royston, Herts, UK

If this happens i am emigrating!! Enough is enough..

Alex, London, UK

I agree that this could be used to combat terrorism, but who will be over seeing the overseers and put a limit on were it stops, its allready getting over-kill with CCTV cameras every where you go, the government should re-alise that emigration is at its highest point in history for a reason. Leave

john higgins, mexborough, south yorkshire

It would take a team of 20 people, working shifts around the clock, just to monitor the texts and (seemingly perpetual) phonecalls my wife makes.

How can they possibly monitor everything?

Steve Thompson, London,

Let's go the whole hog - cameras and microphones in every room in every home, everywhere, and implanted into everybody from birth.Everything is then recorded and monitored. Next lay down rigid rules which have to be adhered to to the letter, with a zero-tolerance. And finally sell it as "freedom"!

Dave, London, UK

Unlike the gutlesss liberal cowards, I support the fight, but this is stupid. Terrorists will use disposables. All this does is expose honest people to fraud and harassment.

Michael Spurlock, Missoula, US

1984 meets THX 1138.

Gavin, Tucson, USA

They can't lock us up for what we are saying in emails - the prisons are full. They even have to let terrorists out early to make room. Anyway, we can all trust our government to respect our privacy - just look at how hard they fought to keep their own expenses private!

John, Bedford, UK

"Since last October telecoms companies have been required to keep records of phone calls and text messages for 12 months".

Well I never knew that!, when was that slipped in?. I cant believe that they have the audacity to ask for this. They have got to go, they really have. They are going mad.

Alan, Chelmsford, UK

Some read Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm and see them as warnings of what could befall free people......while others seemingly apply them as blueprints for ultimate control.
<br/>
<br/>It saddens me to see what has become of my European ancestors.

Mike, Indian Trail, United States

My country and yours need to work together to eliminate paranoid and ineffectual Big Brother leaders and bring REAL democracy back.

Jacob Henderson, Indianapolis, USA

Everyone had better shut up - else you and your family will make "the list" - not of just rabel rousers but as enemies of the state - it's high time you run those muppets in power out or all will be lost....

On the other hand, your tabloids would get juicy to the extreme... hmmm hard call...

James, Charlotte , USA

As a former Brit and now US citizen I came to understand the reason for the 2nd Amendment - (hint: its not about duck hunting, its about personal protection, personal responsibility, and a check on government abuses.) You've surrendered your rights. '2001' came late but its there now.

Paul Smith, Atlanta, USA

Good God. Facist Britain. Who would have dreamed...

Michael Oberndorf, Idyllwild , USA

Well what does all this survelliance matter anyways? The UK is purposely being turned into BritZimbabwetanistan. Your men who stormed Normandy Beach and manned the Spitfires in WW II did so in vain. The inheritance and freedom they purchased with their blood and toil is being given to refugees.

Jr Allen, Houston,

I suspect for all our righteous indignation, this is as far as the protest will get. The typical english response to something like this is to drop the trousers and bend over with a stiff upper lip and then mutter about it afterwards. We get the leaders we deserve. if you're angry, do something.

brian, Stowbridge,

Whats next, tele-screens?

Victoria, Banbridge, Northern Ireland

Pretty sad guys. I feel sorry for you and ashamed of you at the same time. I hope we never stand for that

john, USA, USA

The Brown government will slavishly implement this latest EU directive under the guise of fighting crime and terrorism, but would Cameron’s Conservatives be any different? They have no plans to leave the EU, so would presumably be as duty-bound to implement this as is Brown. We must quit the EU.

Steve, Lincoln, UK

Another fine plan to watch all of us going about our lives and prosecute us for thought crimes, thereby increasing 'crime detecion and prosecution' statistics. Oh and he gets to employ another few thousand jobsworths who'll vote for him next time round.

Sanjay, Wolverhampton,

Please don't let this happen. Democracy is in the balance. Not this year or next, but think of your children's children.

Don, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States

Here we go again another useless idea by Nu Labour, which will cost the British taxpayer a fortune!
I wonder if they'll monitor and check, Have your say, areas like this one, if they go ahead with this monitoring database idea?

Chris'., Tamworth , United Kingdom.

The penny has finally dropped - Brown's brand new vision for change, after creating a welfare dependency state (currently bankrupting us) He wants a bloody police state presumably to do a Mugabe on us in 2010 when he loses his deposit along with the rest of his government of all the untalented.

p[hilip, Ipswich,

Wonder why your tax bill is so high? Who's paying for the systems, all the archiving, the analysis, and the administration and legal bills around this, and who wants to spy on you? Gordon and his cronies have instigated surveillance after surveillance, law after law, fines and restrictions galore.

Phil A, Bordon, UK

How stupid can our masters get.Just think of the number of daily telephone call and eMails.Even assuming that a system can be built to recird and store them all who could possibly find any significant one in that mass.Further it is easy to agree on innocent sounding terms for significant meanings.

George Herbert, Bournemouth,

We should be in the streets protesting about this, this is the mindset of the goverment regardless of if the MP's let this come into play.

We pay 50% more for our fuel than America, yet we dont protest about that eaither.

We take it lieing down, no change there then!

Andrew Towell, Hartlepool, England,

I strongly urge everyone to resist this nazi-style government, and fast. Nu Labour hate us all and if you dont resist you will lose all of your freedoms that tens of thousands of British soldiers fought and died to preserve. Ive never hated a Govt so much.

David kewel, Swansea, Wales

The proposal is one of the most blatant attempts to infringe the basic human right to privacy yet devised by any UK government: Do the police currently open our paper mail and make copies? Would it be legal if they did? Why should electronic mail and telephone calls be considered any differently?

David, Cheshire,

Send emails and text messages to 20 other names at random. Send copies of innocent messages to the authorities to save looking for them. Insert trigger words in white font. Should stitch the system nicely.

Meanwhile the criminal element can use internet cafes, single use phones and callboxes.

Paul, Cambridge, UK

This has to be a joke in the light of the Government's recent attempts and introducing databases that cost us, the taxpayers a fortune and STILL don't work. NHS, HMRC database for Tax Credits....need I bother saying more? Get me out of this country!

Samantha Scholes, Preston, UK

It's not right, we are losing so much freedom in what is meant to be a democracy, and now my PRIVATE emails and phone calls are going to be recorded, Maybe George Orwell was just about 20 or so years out with his predictions.

This is NOT right, it is an invasion of MY privacy.

Gary Lowe, Desborough, UK

Okay- how exactly are they going to store this data ? A 2GB mailbox for 600 people needs over 1 Terabyte of storage. Multiply that by an entire nation and add voice and web usage... not only is this an invasion of privacy, I can't see that it's terribly practical.

Rhidian, Cardiff, Wales

And if you think you have nothing to fear, you are probably wrong. I have read today about someone arrested by the City of Londong police for displaying a banner in a protest against the Church of Scientology. The offence? Using the word "cult". Nothing to fear? Hmmm...

Ricky, Bakewell, UK

I remember this was one of the Countries that condemned the KGB in the Soviet union for this type of behaviour. Did the Soviets have it right then, or are we wrong now?

Tom Finlayson, Carnoustie, Angus

Time for encryption when I send a personal email, maybe full-round version of Blowfish maybe in order.

Charles, Belfast,

You let the government take your guns away. What will you do to stop the rest? 1997 was the end of UK :/

Daniel, Santa Clara, USA

There will be so much information that they'll never be able to find what they want....

Tim, Preston,

I think it is a great idea, I have nothing to hide and so long as you dont use electronic media to transmit personal info, then what is anyone so worried about.

You wouldnt feel so bad if you had been a victim of crime, all this outcry about freedom is idealistic nonsense.

Clare, cambridge, uk

now can i put this, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO
this has NOTHING to to with terrorism and everything to do with controlling the people. This "data" would also be sold to companies without our knowlage
My grandfather fought for this country to be free only for power mads burocrats to give it all away.

ivan, London, UK?

Report From Endtime Ministries:

186 of the 192 nations on earth will have a national ID system in place by 2010. This is all happening at the request of the UN’s ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). It is a plan to number, enter into a database, and monitor every person on earth!

Linda, New York, USA

I thinks MP's should set the lead here by being open and transparent with their emails,telephone calls,expenses......timesheets, to explain what in reality they are doing. Naturally,this should be open for all the public to see.

This is very crazy- what does liberty mean?

Cris, Alton, UK

How is this feasable when you can go down your local high street and purchase a pre-pay mobile phone with cash and then top-up said phone at local newsagents, all without anyone taking your name and/or address. OK calls and the phone can be tracked but how to prove whose phone it is?

rob, Reading, U.K.

the government recently lost NI information and bank details for hundreds of thousands of people...how can they be trusted with such a ridiculous operation?

Alex, London, England

As for you that think this wont work or will never happen, it will. SIngapore (a model country) has been recording the conversations, email of the public for over 20 years. You are naive if you think this will not happen. As an ex-pat, if u spoke out about the government your visa would be revoked

Tony, Cardif, Europe

They'll be monitoring your library books next... sorry, they've thought of that; they're closing down the Library service !

Toolan, Lincoln, UK

Whoever is responsible for these ideas, should be sacked immediately. They are paid out of public funds to attack our basic feedoms. They'll be opening our mail next.

Ray Lee, Canterbury, England

Never mind privacy and freedom. The government have NO chance keeping such a database, given their current disgracefull record on data security. And it will be abused at every turn to spy on you, especially if your bin is slightly overfull. In a word - Incompetence.

Lucas Tatek, Herts., uk

Is that going to be EVERY person's? Who will be the exceptions, I wonder? Maybe Michael Martin would like a say about this. Added to the absurd ID card proposals, this would create another mountain of unjustifiable work for the IT industry which has a near-perfect record of cost and time overruns.

Padraig, Perth, Australia

No chance of this working, every communication from our government still requires name, address, DOB and countless other repeated questions and they still pay out money to the wrong people.

Feel sorry for anyone misidentified though (now there's a thought)!

Richard, Harrogate,

What does the EU directive say? Does it specifically refer to a massive government data base or does it only recommend that the information be recorded as presently done?
The EU should not be used as scape goat for any change in the Society.

Sylvander, Vétraz-Monthoux, France

This collection of information is by no way proportional to the percieved 'threat' from terrorists. "Those that sacrifice their liberty for added security deserve neither". Benjamin Franklin. We are moving closer to a Big Brother State. Only mass civil disobedience can stop this.

Oliver, London, United Kingdom

Who's going to get the contract for it? The same big corporation that consistently fails to deliver anything on time and on budget but somehow keeps getting Government contracts - for billions? And do you seriously think it'll work? Not a chance.

Bry Barnes, Somerset, Uk

To the barricades!

Ronald Scott, Newcasrle upon Tyne,

How funny. Especially from the Americans here. This database already exists.

Z Smith, London,

Did these people think that George Orwell's "1984" was an instruction manual or something?

Liz, Hull,

Again, a measure that targets the whole population because of the actions of a minority. Profiling and targeting the specific population should be used rather than this socialist Marxist statist approach where everyone is treated the same Big Brother style

David Cartright, Birmingham,

Chill out folks, it's only for quality control and training purposes. . .

Igor Zap, Hertford,

OK, so anyone not wanting to have their information stored simply sends a letter......

The security services know who they should be watching, if they don't they need to be replaced.

There is no reason for law abiding citizens to be monitored this way.

Darren, Norwich, UK

This proposal should be opposed on the grounds that it is a mostly ineffective measure against the claimed terrorist targets. Anyone, how has something to hide, can relatively easily implement the counter measures required to effectively hide the destinations and contents of ones Internet traffic.

Sverker Griph, MBCS, Abingdon, UK

i think its time we had a revolution , at the moment the future looks grim !

niel, Margate, United Kingdom

When it comes to freedoms, there will eventually be little to differentiate the Chinese and British style of government. We are probably already monitored more.

The Chinese have many sayings and it would be only fair for their government to tell us that we are "the pot calling the kettle black "

Rob, Bristol,

It's clear now that insanity pervades the Home Office. Call for the men in the little white coats to drag Smith and her slavering cohorts off to the funny farm.

Its sheer lunacy. Let Labour try. It will be the most embarrasing joke of an episode in Labour's tawdry 11 year reign.

John, Kent, England

If this database is to work effectively with calling cards, then the government and your ISP will also have to capture TouchTone signals including everyone's telephone banking account numbers and PIN numbers

This will be a great asset to theives, and terrorists can just VPN to an offshore computer

Ken, Bracknell, UK

They no we’d never accept this sort thing. Next they’ll propose a toned down version, one we’d never have accepted if they’d not scared us with the Big Brother Bill.

Stephen, Middlesbrough, UK

Another Big Brother idea from GB.

Fortunately, there now exists encryption tools for email, some unbreakable spoof IP generators for the internet and some companies are working on text encryption for mobiles.

But in a 'free country' why do I need to do any of this?

rattleman, Reading,

What is wrong with the Chinese government? Always finding ways to restrict the individual freedom that their citizens should enjoy! Oh, wait. These new laws are going to be applied in the UK. Hooray the British government! Thank God they guard us law-abiding citizens against evil terrorists!

Joe, London, UK

Hopefully they can then read all the comments on these pages, and take note.

Jimd, Norwich, uk

How they even propose this without first getting a grip on immigration and border control is beyond me. But then this has nothing to do with terrorism, it's more to do with the final controls being put in place to ensure that everyone toes the line and accepts the EU taking over.

Garley, London, UK

Socialism can only exist with control and monitoring of citizens.
"Papieren, bitte".
How long before it's a crime not to carry your papers? Oh, about as long as it takes to foist the ID card on us.
Good project managers learn from previous projects - NHS system - overbudget, over time, overvalued

W Smith, Manchester,

I think someone ought to point out to the government that 1984 was meant as a critique and a warning, not a blueprint.

Alan Black, London,

well said gabrielle.. you guys have got what you deserve. a nanny state. a big brother state. a state where you do not matter. you are nothing. it is already too late for you. use disposable mobiles to arrange your escape to somewhere like here.
here is russia and we have far far far more freedom

peter jones, moscow,

This is the rope by which the western civilization is going to hang itself. All what has been accomplished in the last 4 centuries goes down the drain by a tick of an idiot's pen.

Heath, Cairo , Egypt

Yet another example if one was needed of how the excuse of terrorism is being used to create a total surveillance society which was the desire of the elite all along. Utter disgrace. This is a fascist totalitarian state in the making.

chris, brighton,

Yes its all very well saying the government should not do these things but we all allow it, Why not everyone say NO to these dictator ways. Mass peacefull demonstrations,down tools etc etc.

affaiec, Birmingham, UK

I'd rather risk getting blown up to be honest

DP, Edinburgh,

I would'nt mind, so long it's not in the hand of Corrupt-evil-ones

Cllr Ken Tiwari (Independent), Oxford, United Kingdom

I'm and honest, tax paying and 100% law abiding citizen and I have nothing to hide. However, just the thought of this level of survalance chills me to the core. Such an attack on the freedoms that we hold so dear, and have paid for in blood so many times just cannot go unanswered.

Flabbergasted

andy, worthing, uk

I have read this article and have since decided to move in to a nearby cave (or is it nearby O.o) to become a hermit. Sawing my keyboard and tower into bits as I'm writing ths gdbye cru wrld!!

Rupert, Edinburgh (in a cave),

Come on Home Office, have your say! I'm still waiting for the individual WHO proposed this scheme to stand up and be IDENTIFIED!! Or does the idea of being watched bother you??

John, Colchester,

I would advise everyone to watch the movie "Zeitgeist", available to view on line on this website: www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Some of the views expressed in the movie can be contested, but to me it represents the most accurate description of what is going on in our society today.

Mark, London,

This is truly laughable. So the government's argument is that they can prevent a terrorist attack by checking through 12 month old archived emails. You have to wonder what their real motives are but they created the homeland terrorist threat so they can sort it out without my inbox being snooped on.

Keith Elliott, Hyde, UK

And in an article in the same paper the question is being asked, "Why are Britons emigrating in such numbers?" I think that this proposal says it all.

FEF, Tewkesbury,

David from Liverpool writes, "Not even the Americans have contemplated this." We're just starting to get an astounding number of new security cameras on our roadways and in my workplace. I DO NOT like the feeling I'm being watched!

Scott, Syracuse, NY, USA

No dont get out, just refuse to accept it! Simple.

John Grant, Armagh, N.I

If labour insists on pushing this through I will consider voting for any party including the BNP, this is a fundemental issue - that we must defend. The safeguard of a court given permission will itself be open to abuse - A profile of every citizen will be constructed.

Kevin, London,

Criminals should switch to the string-between-two-cans method of communication--or smoke signals--in order to stay ahead of the curve!

James, Brielle, NJ, USA

when you put leftist in control of a nation you end up with oppression, this happens in all nations.

Richard T. Ketchum, Moberly, USA

In response to the people who say if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear will you be happy to have a telescreen/cctv in every room in your house?

chris, brighton,

OUTRAGEOUS! and it doesn't stop there. There are plans to store all our medical records centrally within the NHS too.
It appears to me that policies are swept through parliament as quickly as possible before the public have been made fully aware of the dangers.

Kim Domnick, Torquay, UK

Do the other parties agree with this proposal? If not, I can see a 100% change of vote resulting is a simple revolt.

Gilbert, Cheltenham,

I'm and academic and businessman in Technology.

Whilst the government may manage a phone database, thats one specific, accessible technology. Email is not the same kettle of fish, and any attempt to catalogue these *will* be futile.

Remember, Citizen, you can encrypt your data from them too.

Tim Putnam, Reading, UK

Aaaaaargghhh! We're in Room 101 with The Labour Party.

Viktorovich, London,

'put forward by home office officials.'

And which officials are these ?

And whose interests are they serving.

Such a database is wrong in principle and ineffective in practice. What about Tor, Freenet, ssh and the other 100s of darknets out there ?

Troc Ster, SW, UK

After the huge losses in the recent council elections, NuLabour sez its listening! Yep they sure are, nuLabour Gestapo will fine me or worst still arrest me if I show data patterns that do not match their norms. I haven't Labour ever since they've introduced the ID Card. Not a party to trust

Martin Praed, London, UK

One assumes that MPs communications would be exempt from this prying?
I would hate to think their privacy was invaded!

Jim, Prudhoe, England

What about Article 8, on privacy rights, of the European Convention on Human Rights? It says, "Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence."

Gordon Brown, if you're listening, RESPECT OUR HUMAN RIGHTS!

Time for mass protest?

Simon, Brentwood, UK

There's a lot of nonsense spoken here about encrypting emails etc. when future technology threatens to reveal all via quantum computing.
The real way to protect your privacy is to become an MP. Miraculously it won't be in the public interest for your information to be stored in a leaky database.

Mark, Liverpoool, UK

The Nazis emerged from the National Socialist Party, who were elected by the German voters. Hitler became leader without being elected by his party. They fed the population a diet of fear which enabled then to pass legislation that was “to protect the Fatherland”. I am beginning to get a feeling of déjà vous. You don’t think this is the way Adolf Brown and the New Labour Fascist want to take the country?

Paul, Lincoln, England

All those posting in this HYS, Please return to your allotted tasks.

Those inciting political discent/unrest! Be aware you are in breach of fedral law and are thus will be required to attend RE-TRAINING

The Controller, London, England

Well, that’s it for me. I am off to start a new country somewhere fuelled by a bit a common sense. Who’s coming? (Current British politicians need not apply).

Luke, London, UK

Maybe this is government's plan to make the Royal Mail profitable again?

Tornike, London, UK

Read Blind Faith by Ben Elton.
DegSep is on its way!!!!
Really is the sign of things to come.
There is a grain of truth in every facet of the story. Plus its a good yarn.

John Askha, Bradford, England

"don't care what information they have about me, because I don't have anything to hide.
Lee McLennan"
Too naive. A crime is committed. CCTV shows you in the area at the time. So does your mobile phone position. And you have no alibi. No one else appears to have been there. You're guilty.

W Smith, Manchester,

Every packet that comes in and out of an ISP's network is cached and in some nations it is defined by law that this should be done and be made available to the authorities at will. In other nations where there is not a law it will be done anyway. This is an attempt to improve the data-mining options

Brian Williams, Liverpool, England

They're completely welcome to all my spam and cold calls from salesmen.

Net result: real criminals won't use email, will switch to sat-phones and short-range radio messaging.

Criminalize the innocent - the're always an easy target.

Steve Farr, London, UK

Hey I've been doing this already anyway, every text, e-mail or phone call I make, I make sure I send a copy again to Gordon Brown. You know just to keep him in the picture as he's a total idiot, needs a sense of reality or should that be a frontal labotomy.

I'm off to the moon!

Chris, Dumbarton,

Echelon is already here in the uk. your DNA can be stored on a database without being guilty. Childrens' details on another.We get closer to a police state everyday,ruled by fear and ignorance propagated by the media.Get out while you can!

bob, cirencester, UK

Can I be blunt?

Only 47 people have died in the UK since 2001 becuase of terrorism (or 7 per year). 33,000 people die for alcohol related reasons each year, but no-one is banning that...

Mark Howes, Brighton,

So this is how it will go down: you're caught looking at a web site or video that shows you could be dissatisfied with the government (eg. J For Justice), you will be locked up as a terrorist as you find out and oppose what is really going on in the world... the new world order is already here.

Tom, Manchester,

Becoming a Down and Out (in Paris and London) is becoming an attractive idea.

Andrew, Suffolk, UK

And all this from the same MP's who are fighting to have their expenses revealed to the electorate.

Time for the revolution!

Oh, better be careful as some Government department will have software screening emails for seditious words...it's not far away and coming to a country near you.

Thomas, Alicante, Spain

When do we get a chip for our heads that stops us from thinking on our own???? Why don't we just all hand over our freedom right now and have the State turn this beautiful country into Hitler's dream of one giant concentration camp?

Or have they already done it....

Neil, Derby, UK

ah another way for the government to misplace our personal information - genius.

Katie, Harrogate,

Stuart from London, your attitude is precisley the reason why this despicable government has been allowed to curtail our freedoms and invade our privacy. So I'm sure you won't mind when they put a camera in your bathroom and bedroom. After all, you have nothing to hide right?

Mitch, melbourne, Australia

Go to motorway. Take a look how many cars are above 70 mph speed limit. Almost everybody excluding lorries. Why not track all the cars and fine everybody. Problem with public finances will be solved. After 10pm noise level should not exceed...

Vladimir Jigouline, Birmingham, West Midlands

Over my dead modem.

This is paranoid control freakery that even Myanmar could learn from. Every fraudster in the world will be queueing up to work for the Home Office to get their hands on our info.

David Keen, Yeovil, England

I just love it when muppets say "I've done nothing wrong, so I've nothing to hide". These people will gladly live in a police state with a microchip embedded in their skull daily chanting 'Baaaaa' when ordered to do so.

Dave Smith, Norwich, UK

Does anyone actually support this ? Who in the present Gov''t is backing this initiative ?

trevor, North Hampshire, UK

to 'Stuart, London, England' - who do you vote for? What are your sexual preferences? What do you like to eat? Where are you going for your holidays? What's the name and address of your partner? Is she/he the only one? do tell...

Chris, Exeter, Devon

All this has been foreseen years and years ago - the loss of privacy and freedom. 1984 is here and now. We can only pray.

soile, Tiznit, Morocco

If you think terrorists are going to stop.. well.. terrorising because you think you're watching them, you've got to be kidding.

Nitika, Delhi, India

Which department will be responsible for losing this information? And is there anyone in the government who understands the word 'responsible' without having to look in a dictionary?

Rowan, Oxford,

So are we all complusive CRIMINALS now , judged on basis of how we look, colour of our skins, surnames, what we talk and what we eat.

Thx but no thx

LABOUR HAS TO GO!


Tax paying genuine immigrant!

rohan, london, uk

When are you people going to say, "Enough is enough!" I thought it was New Zealand that sheep outnumbered people.

Terry, Plano Texas, USA

Lee McLennan................how would you like all your post opened -- it amounts to the same thing.

Some things we LIKE to keep private

Phil, Preston,

There are over 220 comments on here from people who are opposed to this. Your comments and addresses are now registered. Expect a visit in the middle of the night. We cannot have willfil disobediance from the majority, it undermines democracy. I'm off to Zimbabwee for my annual holiday.

Keith, London, England

So how will this database trace the real troublemakers who can presumably still anonymously use internet cafés and other untraceable locations?

Penny Phenix, Villiers-Charlemagne, France

Data Encryption is easy - all you need is a key and a suitable encryption / decryption algorithm. Then pass your text through the encryptor - copy and paste it into the e-mail and there you are.

Just make sure that you use your own as a bought one will probably have a 'back door' built in.

S JOnes, Hull, GBR

They know the public will lie down and take it in return for 'security'.

Stuart, Manchester, England

Ben Elton's got it right - Blind Faith becomes less a work of fiction by the second.

Nobody wants this. It's DegSep in the beginning. Someone clever, please help us all to express our discontent with the powers who think they're doing right, but are only diong harm.

James Leeming, London, UK

This is shocking. I would rather I die at the hands of whoever this intends to pursue than live in this increasingly monitored society. It really is time for ministers to give the detail as to why we need this form of security.

Derek, Glasgow,

Not a chance of it working. It would require stupendous amounts of data storage and multiple supercomputers to query the database., Quite apart from data quality, which will be abysmal.

This one is a paper tiger guys. Quit worrying.

John, Leeds, UK

When do the people of this country have a say in how Labour and EU decide to run its life. Where is our referendum?

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

When are the public going to open their eyes and see that the government is already looking over their shoulders watching every move they make? The thing that is really scary is that so few people are making a fuss about this. Sleepwalking into 1984 - its a fact.

Steven Dorif, Salford, England

Any electronic devices and or software program created by someone can always be broken by someone else. So any database no matter who created it or looks after it can be hacked cracked or penetrated no matter how much security you put round it.

Shaun, Rossendale, UK

I think it's great that intellectually handicapped people are integrated into mainstream society these days rather than being locked away as in Victorian times, but allowing them to become MPs is going too far.

Mike, Warwick, UK

The thought police are on to us. This seems a crackpot idea and one that our government will undoubtedly embrace with delight. Not even the Americans have contemplated this.

David Nammory, Liverpool,

If this happens, we must all start using strong encryption to scramble our e-mails to prevent unwanted interception.I have nothing to hide but I am not prepared to have everything I write read by Authorities we know use CCTV pictures to catch people for minor offences.

Chris Harper, London,

Sleepwalking into a surveillance society? Wake up, we're already there. Sleepwalking into a dictatorship, more like.

Go on, fear us into submitting to more inane "security controls". If Joe Blow is going to strap on a belt with C4, he won't give a crap if his emails are read after he's deads

Tor Houghton, Brighton,

Great - maybe they could use this to find out how many of their spooks have hooker wives? If the system goes ahead, it will be years and millions over budget before it works, given other government IT fiascos. And it still won't catch terrorists, who use random cybercafes and disposable mobiles.

Alex Duggan, London, UK

This is absolutely terrible! Hasn't terrorism worked well for these tyrants we call our democratically elected leaders? Anyone smell rat?

James, Sheffield,

Need we wonder why the taxes are getting higher? This is truly absurd! I don't see the British allowing such an Orwellian law to police thier lives.

Liberalism and individualism made me come here to school (and possibly build a life afterwards) in the first place!

Mo, Essex, UK

We will never progress as a people until we can learn to trust one another. The problem is that a lot of the ministers and esteemed industry leaders have sacrificed their souls in attaining their positions of influence and assume the general public are capable of the same unethical behaviour.

Jerry, Norwich,

When are you going to stop putting it in quotation marks ?
There's nothing about it that needs qualifying.
It really IS happening.
It IS as totalitarian as it looks and all you do is editorialise.

That German bloke with the naff do got his start exactly the same way; nobody did anything !!!!

RonAghast, Garfield, Australia

Don't worry about this new initiative. Firstly, it will take decades to build the IT system (see NHS) and even if it is eventually completed, it won't work. Secondly, it will be extremely expensive to set up (likely running into billions) and the government has now almost completely run out of cash.

Richard, London, UK

Oh dear there'd better not be any dissention against political parties then. Protest about the government increasing your taxes and you'll end up 'disappearing'! We all know what this is really about and it's nothing to do with security but a great deal to do with future limited resources.

judy, liverpool, england

Why don't they just confiscate all written correspondence too? It's the same thing isnt it?

Since you're all scanned by camera, why not have microphones everywhere too? Once you accept the principle, surely it becomes slowly applicble to any part of private life?

Eventually in the living room?

cat, Marseille, France

I wonder how many people on this comments page would be moaning if this technology was used to foil a terror plot that they or their families may have become caught up in. I have nothing to hide - Do you?

Stuart, London, England

All those who voted labour back in the day, thanks. The government is more frightening than terrorists in many respects.

New world order is happening people, its only a matter of time...

Simon, UK,

Just encrypt all email (better still, encrypt several times), use an anoymiser service for web browsing, and add the words "ak47, semtex, jihad, infidels" into the subject of every email you send from now on.

Mike, Coventry,

Ash, I have done so.

Patrick, Oslo, formaly of Tunbridge Wel, Norway

This violates the right to respect for privacy life, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. The nebulous justification of "terrorism" simply doesn't cut it. This Bill will not help fight terrorism at all, it will simply add to the Home Office's already unjustifiable power.

Zoe Robinson, Manchester, United Kingdom

Journalists should be most worried. The government will be able to trace leaks and whistleblowers from the communication records of journalists. They might need a warrant, but they'll just mutter "national security" to get one from a court. This is about control, not fighting terrorism.

Rob Sterling, London, UK

I've long suspected that Labour were the enemy within. Socialists were never ones for democracy/liberalism, but all for command and control of the citiizen. Labour's electronic dataveillance panoptican will have us psychologically profiled by data-profiling, arresting us before we commit a crime

Martin Eastbourne, London, UK

It is sad to see the same people that built an empire, resisted the Nazis, and bravely faced fierce internal terrorism turn into helpless victims, relying on Big Brother. Guess that's what subjects. as opposed to citizens, are conditioned to do.
And we're doing the same damn thing here.

D Gile, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

What do you expect from 'New Labour' - they're just a bunch of socalists with a good PR department.

Mark Howes, Brighton,

It's a great pity it's not able to track and fine those people using mobile phones whilst driving! I think 99.9% of our population have nothing to fear from these measures, nothing at all. I hope the computer is tracking MP's from both parties and also Euro MP's!

RayB , Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Outrageous.
Again, our Grandfathers fought to keep the Nazi state out but they came back in a new guise.
Terrorists will probably just start using the post. Imagine opening every letter ever sent and taking a photo of it.
Another move toward a microchip in everybodys neck.

J Nowland, Leeds, United Kingdom

I'm 20 years of age and have already decided to leave this sinking ship that is the UK as soon as poosible. Good, honest & hard working British citizens are harrased, whilst asylum seekers claim benefits and plot to destroy us! I'm not alone within my generation either, which spells a gloomy future!

Phil, Preston, UK

Actually, I lived in Soviet Union. There was no 1:3 spying ratio. May be in Stalin period - I do not know. These ID and record keeping proposals exceeds all the spying capabilities Soviet Union had.

Vladimir Jigouline, Birmingham, West Midlands

Wendell Phillips gives us a clear warning in 1852 when he said "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Freedom".

We must be vigilant that dictators do not steal our liberty. This is about control, not about countering terrorism.

Peter, London, Airstrip One

It is quite clear from the comments on this web site that virtually nobody in the country supports Labour's big brother database. To think all these curtailments on our civil rights are being brought in by an unelected leader? Why are not people out no the streets? David Icke has been proved right!

Chris Bovey, Totnes, UK

Brilliant idea.

Can we also please be issued with helmets containing video cameras and microphones each connected to the central computer?

Can the computer please be open to all?

I so much want to see the personal habits and lifestyle of the cretin who came up with this one.

David Williams, Eastnor, England

Why are we allowing 'them' to do this? More than half a million people die each year as a result of smoking, yet no tobacco smokers (active and passive) are databased!! Only around 200 have died in Europe due to 'terror'??? Control, control, control!!

EU Gestapo Office, Brussels,

The Soviet Union had the biggest spy network in history, with 1 in 3 citizens spying for the state, part of what crushed their economy?

It will cost 10 times the estimate, won't work properly and the details of how to access it left by mistake when a leading govt official is visiting his mistress..

Bill Bird, Wallasey, UK

someone goes to an internet cafe, looks at bomb making online, noone sees them so no one knows who was looking, meanwhile work hard pay taxes and use a PC at home then watched 24/7! As ever the law is brought in to fight terror however, it would not be long before the council used it to check bins!

Richard de Gerber, Kingston upon Thames, UK

I think David Davies' point is the most salient. This Government is incapable of maintaining the security of what it already has, what on Earth makes them think that they can handle an upgrade!? What's the point anyway? The guilty won't be deported or jailed for more than ten mins...Guantanamo Bay?

James Cullup, oxford,

Don't blame the EU -- the directive does not argue for such a system. This is all the British.

Jamie, Washington DC, USA

Great! Just what we need! More £billions of taxpayer money to be wasted on senseless government databases which will not benefit anyone. Wonder how long before they loose the data disks or login codes for that one in post again......
Labour - get lost!! We have had enough of your stupidity!

Marek, London,

Disgusting invasion of privacy!

Dave, Porthcawl, UK

Sounds to me like the sort of thing the Soviets would have done, or any other modern day repressive dictatorship. How can we censure human rights violations in China, North Korea or former Soviet states when this is happening to us right here?
Freedom has been silently legislated away

Doug Harper, Bristol,

How long will it be before UK Gov't Plc decide that the value of this data exceeds the risks of prosecution from distributing it.

I expect it will be up for sale to ANYONE who wants it for the right price. Insurance companies, advertisers, banks, they will even sell you your own info back to you.

Dave Kinsley, Derby, UK

What about Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights? It's the Article on privacy. The first part of it says, "Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence."

Gordon Brown, if you're listening: RESPECT OUR HUMAN RIGHTS!

Simon, Brentwood, UK

Over taxed, over governed! We are certainly sleepwalking into a 'big brother' state versus ordinary citizen. We urgently need to slash public spending and update our democratic process so that majority governments like this one don't get control with barely 1 in 4 of the electorate.

Steve Marchant, Broadhempston, UK

I'm so speechless I can't think what to write.

Kevin, Leeds,

Well none of you have the right to complain. Those with the power to speak out and organise opposition to this type of thing have done nothing and sat quietly while:- Surveilance and car Number Plate Cameras were rolled out, ISP and phone Co's kept your info, ID cards are still coming, need I go on!

Dave Kinsley, Derby, UK

I remember the Home Office presentation on this. The ISPs pointed out to copy all this would effectively equal the storage of all ISPs in the country, and who was going to pay for the buildings, the hardware, the maintenance and the extra power stations to run it all?

Adrian Ramsey, London,

So does this mean that David Icke might not have been a paranoid nuitcase all along?

OH DEAR...

Brian Rainwash, Area K, EU

I'm made up with this news

Dr Evil
Secret Underground Bunker
Cheshire

mike, chessington,

Welcome to the EU , get used to it , this is merely the tip of the iceberg ...

Dan, Watford, Herts

sign up to hushmail, just google it, takes two minutes to sign up.

preddo53, leeds, UK

How can they justify this as a fight against terrorism? Terrorist will just use internet cafes to do their work and from there they sign into a hotmail account and make a draft of what they want someone to read. Then the person they want to read it signs in and looks at the draft, no email sent! So how will a data base like this catch terrorists? It won’t! It is just an excuse to put a database in place that can ultimately be used for anything they like!

Dave, Totton, UK

And I thought Brown and his government were merely incompetent, not paranoid as well. Of course those who plan terrorist acts will take note, as well as the necessary evasive action: so add stupid to incompetence and paranoia!

Country Bumpkin, Exeter, UK

Using Skype enables me to have a phone number in most countries in the World. I use an e-mail server in Germany. Using tunneling i can disguise my IP address. So that's me in the clear for the time being. But the Government will no doubt start preventing these companies from operating. Let's leav

Mark, Birmingham,

I don't know what everyone is worrying about there is not a chance that they will either get it to work or be able to pay for it.

They could spend a fraction of the costs on the police and other security services.

Although this would risk annoying the bad guys.

Alan, Verwood, UK

Robert Mugabe couldn't have thought of a better way to control the population. All dissidents of govt policy can be easily targeted and punished accordingly - children refused good schools, NHS treatment refused, random stop and search by the 'thought' police .. the whole idea is obscene !

Guy, London,

Interesting how tyranny always starts with a buzz word and a vague target. With us it is national security and terrorists. All dictatorships justify their diminution of human rights and freedoms in this way.Since 2005 we do not even have habeus corpus. What are we leaving for our children?

Peter Munro, Hailsham, East Sussex

I'm off to Zimbabwe. They elect their leaders and they do not spy on their citizens like this.

Dave, Slough,

I suggest liberally sprinkling the words bomb, target, infilitrated, security breach into all texts and emails.

Also encryption, snail mail, pay for everything in cash and leave your mobile phones at home.

cuffleyburgers, Lucca,

To Phil from Southend - I could not have said it better!

Lisa , London, UK

I thought the police had powers to access people's IT and phone info if they had arrested them. What is this? Guilty 'til proven innocent? Not only is this proposal an invasion of our civil liberties, I do not trust this government, or any other, to be able to look after the information properly.

Frances Roberson, Croydon,

Absolutely Diabolical!

Mark, Barcelona, Spain

"Nineteen Eighty Four" needs to be compulsory reading for all British schoolchildren.

Simon, London,

Makes you proud to be living in the Brown Dictatorship, such a step forward from the Blair Dictatorship!

Peter Eaves, nuneaton, uk

How can this be anything other than a breach of the human right to privacy. I don't think there is anyway for the government to defend it. If they bypass HRA 1998 someone will take them to the European Court of Himan Rights and they will be legally obliged to abandon it. Pointless exercise.

David, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

Its nonsense.

If the powers that be have lost data in the past, then how can they be expected to govern a database as large as this one would be?

They are not capable of it - nor is it workable. I noted the post about porn and spam.

Another stupid idea thought up by a load of airheads.

Annie, Bath, UK

Sponsored by Western Digital and your local CO2 emitter

Roger, Brisbane, Australia

I seem to hear the ghost of Joseph Stalin chuckling...Ha ha ha...ho ho ho... they thought my Empire had disintegrated and been historically discredited but now they are following precisely in my footsteps.... the weasels...

Gloria B. Devine, Taunton, UK

Not in the slightest bit scary; propaganda aimed at the masses! Most people have missed the point. With the sheer volume of traffic collected the likelihood of ANYONE having the capability of being able to sift through it meaningfully is zero. Only targetted surveillance or interception is feasible!

country boy, bournemouth, England

Your first par, which says where you got this from, says "under plans put forward by officials."

What officials would they be, please? Can you be more specific about where this plan is coming from, and how much evidence you have for its introduction?
Has any MP or minister backed this?

Sally, Yorkshire,

And they spent how much of tax payers money, to fight for their right not to have to declare their allowance scams?. Nice how Human Rights are non existent for us proles.

Beverley, Bilston, England

Don't rely on your politicians to fight this. The opposition won't stand in the way, because they intend to get that power for themselves someday.

This horrific invasion of your privacy demands civil disobedience on a massive scale. Boycott businesses that comply.

-jcr

John C. Randolph, Cupertino, California, USA

How can a democracy thrive with a massive apparatus of spying technology deployed against every act of political expression, private or public? That is what this means!

Who knows what data mining techniques will quietly be trawling through this database? - The Americans are also doing the same..

Hairy Dave, Paphos, Cyprus

Even the logistics of such an operation like this is unbelievable. All anyone would have to use encryption on their outgoing emails. Even I know how to write an encryption program. A stupid and unbelievable idea. So much for a democratic country! Labor has just lost my vote at the next election

Lynnsay Piper, Dundee, Scotland

Our colossal proliferation of CCTV cameras have not affected crime one whit. This monstrous project will have no effect other than to universalise identity theft once the data is (predictably and inevitably) leaked to criminals. The current batch of MPs should not only be deselected but prosecuted

Mikey, Bromley, Kent

I say this is one of few issues where a referendum is required. I don't trust my MP to say 'No' so I fear I will have to do it myself. How could anyone, anywhere, EVER think this is a good idea? I direct those people to 1984, it won't seem such a good idea any more.

Nick Burns, Nottingham,

Enough is enough. Labour, your time is over, this is the straw that will break the donkey's back. This borders on totalitarianism, and if you are stupid enough to even posit this idea then it shows you have totally lost the plot. You exist to serve the people, not to dominate them.

Simon, London, UK

Sorry, but this has been happening for years. In particular e-mails, SMS & mobile calls are logged & retained as a matter of course.

This is a case of the horse having bolted some years ago.

tim warren, touluse, france

Once again, we see the results of ignorant, well-meaning people. (The quotation "The path to Hell is paved with Good Intentions" comes to mind.) The innocent will be yet more vulnerable, and the guilty will have taken the steps necessary to protect themselves, and we will all pay for another mess.

Peter H, Guildford, Surrey

"Power corrupts" indeed..

The only answer is to take the power back again before it becomes absolute. Thank God we're still a democracy. Goodbye Labour, and goodbye EU, what repulsive custodians they've turned out to be.

I hope the Times forwards these remarks to the appropriate source.

Amanda, Bury St. Edmunds,

Year 12 of the Thousand Year Reich.
With this Communication database fascism and the freaky frankenstein fascism, you can just see HITLERS smiling face behind it all.

Sean Hamerton, York., England.

The East German Stasi could not have imagined this, or even the surveillance that we are now subjected to, in their wildest dreams.

Derek Carr, Bristol, UK

We aren't sleepwalking into a surveillance society,we are already there.
The labour "Socialist" government is looking more and more like the Dictatorships that devastated europe and the world.

James, Marbella, Espana

I hope they never copy it to a DVD and post it.

David, Cheshire,

Oh.... and back to Jack at the very beginning.... the US (and several other countries) have done this for years but just haven't been so stupid/honest as to go public on it. Others lauding encryption are just tagging themselves for closer scrutiny; get lost in the masses if you're that paranoid.

country boy, bournemouth, England

Great. That's the end of solicitor-client privileged communications. And wait until we start to get corrupt officials selling tapes to the tabloids or terrorists. Or jealous civil servants monitoring their other halves' texts to see what they get up to in their spare time. This has to stop NOW!

Lord Justin of Sloane, London, UK

What a load of rubbish this system already exists, heres a shock for you every text message and mobile phone call is recorded, any phone using mobile & radio can be hacked into and listened too.

Technology brings great freedom, but the costs to that freedom are that our privacy is denied.

Chris, Northern Territories of UK, ENGALAND

Naivete. The data already exists. GCHQ already monitor it and SIS already use it. What's new? - making the data legally accessible and submissible and, oh, the mega contracts for hard/software and administration. Make your own mind up as to why! But, give the project to Willie Walsh - we'll be safe.

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

The government is now the enemy.

Dr Nick Ashley, Huntingdon, England

"We have warned before that we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society."
The way I perceive the British society this has happened years ago. I know no other country where there is such an omnipresence of CCTV and other forms of surveillance.

Florian, Newcastle upon Tyne,

Whenever a story such as this appears in the media, the backlash against it is predictable. The simple fact is that the more information the authorities have, the more criminals they catch. I don't care what information they have about me, because I don't have anything to hide.

Lee McLennan, London, UK

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
attr. Benjamin Franklink

Given the Stasti like activities of local councils misusing the RIP Act, the disgusting TV license ads etc I think we can see where all this is going.

James, Ilford, United Kingdom

It is true that when someone doesn't understand something he will do odd and bizzarre things like this one. In a private and ethical company anyone proposing such thing would be demoted or dismissed. I believe it is also a crime to look into people's private lives.

Giancarlo, London, England

This is coming from the Police/Stasi. They want to harass anyone who objects to the PC, multiculti state, especially anyone white, middle-class, with a mind of their own. They already harass photographers and journalists [google 'undercover mosque']. They also want everyones' DNA.

michael clarke, kensington, london

Surely, this proves that it is time to dump the EU and all its workings. The EU Commission cannot even get their accounts audited FOR 13 YEARS!
Let us return to the the old Common Market principles with MINIMAL input from the BRUSSELS MAFIA
A REFERENDUM PLEASE

M. Cawdery, Portadown, Co. UK, EU

Oh as an AFTER THOUGHT. ANYONE CONTRIBUTING TO THE TIMES HYS WILL BE FIRST IN LINE FOR THE "DATABASE"

M. Cawdery, Portadown, Co. UK, EU

I always thought of this Country as the Motherland, sadly it seems to be turning into the FATHERLAND!!!!!!!
Tomorrow belongs to me, etc.....

Pete, St Albans, England

I think people would do well to remember that this became an EU directive because the British Government stamped its feet and demanded that these "security" concepts so close to the heart of labour be applied by the EU to Europe as a whole. There were many countires who saw this as overkill.

Tom, Munich, Germany

If this is the case, then I recommend that people start using encrypted mail immediately. (note to Times: article on this). 'Big Brother' government has no right to snoop on us in this way any more than to raid Post Office bags and read our letters.

Adrian Gilbert, Tonbridge,

i thougt 1984 was awork of fiction not an instruction manual,by the way texas jack gw has been reading youir e mails since 9-11 home land security and the patriot act have been used to destroy maqgnacata and the first amendment welcome to a new world order ten thousand people control the rest of us.

mike, west mids,

The threat to the general public from terrorism has been hyped by the media, which then naturally becomes the next Labour policy to try and win favour with the increasingly dissolusioned populace. We have excellent secruity forces already in place, this is nonsense, and then a laptop would be lost..

Kieran, Somerset, England

Anyone got any info on how one could either hack this database, spam/flame it, or better still, encrypt one's data so that it could not be read?? Could proxy-servers be used? I'm no IT expert, but I'm sure there are ways around this. Sorry, 'Nanny', I feel I will need to emigrate before too long....

Ash, Tunbridge Wells,

Will this be put to the vote or brought in via the back door as seems the norm nowadays. I am all for security and fighting terrorism, but this is too much. It's time the British public stood up and said ENOUGH!

Hamad Lone, London, England

When did the British public become the enemy; when did we all become guilty of a crime that justifies us being under a permanent state of surveillance? What the hell is going on in this country - what happened to the liberty that our fellow countrymen & women fought and died for...?

JC, Bournemouth, UK

Good point Allison. On top of letter censorship, they might also suggest all operators of public meeting places such as restaurants, bars and cafes should be required to keep records of everyone who comes to their establishment and who they spoke to.
This whole idea is obscene.
Patrick, London

Patrick Esson, London,

The public will wake up from the comfort zone and oppose this totalitarian civil liberties abuse any day now!.The terror is our government Brown and the gang have to GO NOW enough of your fear mindset conditioning.This new EU scheme clearly orchestrated by the one Euro government headed by Blair

Daniel Rampling, London, UK

Ha ha ha. I love this stuff.
If they passed this measure then all I would do is pick a book/paper/magazine, make sure the people I was contacting had the same, then use it to make a code. Eg the first word can be found on page 5, papargraph 6, 10 words in (5.6.10).
Break that :)

Jim, Wrexham,

Emotional kneejerk rhetoric aside from a strategic point of view compiling a vast db creates a vulnerable juicy target and negates the sense of security it tries to engender. The internet was created so we DO NOT have centralised points of communication or data storage as a means of defence.

David Amerland, Cheadle, UK, Cheshire

WHO are "the officials" preparing this scheme? WHO are the actual individual people responsible for such an appalling step on the way to subjugation? Maybe they will explain themselves on this thread.....

John, Colchester,

There are no words to discribe what I think of this vile nu labour government, this is beyond Orwells most hideous imaginings, it has nothing to do with the the probing of terrorism and another step toward total authoritarian control of people by monitoring and making people comply by fear

Alex Lee, carshalton, United Kingdom

This will merely formalise in statute what the security services can already do de facto.

This demonstrates that the security services are primarily interested in blanket surveillance of the population rather than keeping an eye on 'terrorists'.

Daniel, London, UK

George Orwell. We are nearly there. Just a few more billions wasted of our own tax payers money. A few more gov cockups and bingo! Totalitarian State and Surveylance Society! Thanks NuNuLabor. As Gordon says "He's Listening" . . . . . . .Time to invest in invisible ink and get scribbling!

Lucas Tatek, Herts., uk

Perhaps someone wants to start an e-petition: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/
There are so many reasons to be against this plan - not just from a privacy perspective but from a practical one.
People who don't want their phone and email heard/read will simply encrypt that transmission. Its just pointless

David, London,

This excessive desire to to delve into the private lives of every citizen is a further example, if one was needed, of how out of touch labour has become with ordinary people. These inroads on our freedoms are reminiscent of the dark days of the Soviet Union and must be stopped.

Simon Marshland, Bath, UK

It's a late April fool, right?
Otherwise it's about time I moved back to Germany, where they are still very aware that knowledge is power.

freya, London,

The government have neither the skill nor the resources for this. Those that know what they're doing will get around it anyway, it's just another excuse to waste money we don't have. This government is an utter disaster, the EU is an unelected mess and I feel like emigrating. Truly depressing.

Ross, Ripon, UK

Who is Labour trying to convince! this is the same lot who lost millions of peoples data by transferring discs by mail!!...not registered by the way. Using terror and crime (Fear) is the same excuse the Soviets, used. Yes lets get this lot out, but let your local MP know this is not acceptable.

Mike Smith, Ashington, UK

Obviously their IT experts don't know much! It doesn't take much to setup an email server, and even make it secure so that only authorised people can access it. If I wanted to stop the government accessing emails between a few other people it would be quite easy. If I can, so can the terrorists!!

PD, Southampton,

Fools, don't you realise what is happening. Gordon can never win the next election, so his strategy is simple. Make sure Cameron can't win either. Come up with such a ridiculous suggestion that make the uk citizen run to the hills (Lib Dems) and Gordon destroys Cameron as well as himself.

Charles, Dewsbury, UK

I think this is a brilliant idea!
I'm really glad my taxes are being spent on something constructive and for the greater good of all.
I think this government and G Brown are the best we've ever had.
More civil servants I say, we can't have enough.
"Just in case, can't be too careful"

Pete, Limnos, Greece

The new gun laws have resulted in greater gun crime because criminals, naturally, take no notice of the law. Do not think for one moment that terrorists will be unable to get round this ridiculous notion. Look not to the Tories for salvation on this one either - if elected they'd love this law!

Bill Q, Derby,

Marxism is alive and well in Europe.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and communism was a ruse.

louis blanc, Liverpool, UK

Governments don't lack information, merely something intelligent to do with it.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Great Britain? More like Soviet Britain! Wake up, everyone - Nu Labour's masterplan will come to fruition if we put up with this proposed surveillance - Orwell's '1984' will finally come true, somewhat later than he reckoned.

Gabrielle, London,

PC Labour - Stamping Down On Privacy

Ed, Harrogate, England

Thisgovernment continues to remove civil liberties in the name of terrorism, and it's all a fraud! It's not enough we have more speed cameras per person in this country than anywhere else in the world. Someone really has to stand up and say ENOUGH!!!!!

mario, london,

MP's are like sheep - they will vote for anything and this bill will be no different !!!! Just look at the embryo votes in Parliament yesterday !!!!

Ian Payne, WALSALL,

The only consolation to this asinine idea is, to me, the fact that there is no feasible way for them to gather every single e-mail and store it for 12 years or so.

If only because of the amount of Viagra, Pr0n, and scam mails.

Who woulda tunk there'd be a day for us to be glad of spam?

Michael Welsh, New York, NY

What a waste of our money.
Do you think they should also record all or phone calls and open all our post too? Why not record every pub conversation? or pillow talk?
Where will this paranoid waste of money end? will it realy prevent anything?

Tony Seaton, Southyampton , UU

Sledgehammer to crack a small nut I'd say.

Anyway, I thought the Security services already monitored all calls and emails for certain key words or names used, then recorded those!

Selective monitoring is Security based, general monitoring is for Political control and against public interest.

Sam Redman, London, UK

Haha . Never voted labour in my life and after 33 years of never having a Government that represented my thoughts and ideas I realise the time has come to leave this miserable island . Uk reaps what it has sown . I despair .

Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,

I agree with David,Norfolk.
What are they plotting to record..the actual conversations,e mail text and reply and the meanderings of teenage caht rooms?
Nonsense if so.
Once again kneejerk idiocy.

Geoff Mayor, Leamington Spa, UK

This is great news for Indian data processing out sourcing cos. Obviously the British government will go bankrupt paying high salaries in sterling to incompetent government employees so the only option left is to outsource. Indian entrepreneurs should gear up for this data processing bonanza.

bachu, tokyo, Japan

I'd comment... But we're being watched ! ! !

Shay D Kat, Dark Crater, Moon

Excellent, yet another reason to never vote for Labour ever again. Vote these dangerous monsters out of office before its too late. Terrorism is evil, but I think the current Labour party present more of a threat to the lives and freedoms of the British people than any terrorist!

John, Manchester,

Of course all MPs and Politicians will be exempt!!!
When the next Dictator comes along they will not even have to bother putting the infrastructure to control dissent in place. The general trait to be optimistic and not to consider unpleasant consequences of actions wins until we have thrashed all!

Esther Phillips, Leatherhead,

Never mind the ridiculuous cost the actual logistics of this would cost the public, anyone anywhere can, will and do use proxy servers, IP addresses and innumerable other techniques by which to remain untraceable; hacking of cell phones even today in order to remotely trigger a bomb is simple....

renee ballernini, Modena, Italy

New Labour read 1984 and thought it was a manifesto!

Dean, Southampton, England

The US already moniters every e-mail sent using its Echalon system, and do you know where they do this from?
Good old England, from their spy base Menwith Hill and other bases in the North of England.
We cannot even enter these bases to monitor what goes on,Echelon looks at all international e-mails

Jaya, Brighton,

Whoever said Brown was like Stalin was not joking.

As if ID cards are not a big enough waste of money, this is utterly ridiculous.

Goodbye UK.

hetterley, Chelski,

Thankfully, any public sector IT project as big as this would take about 25 years and a billion pounds to complete & wouldn't work when it was delivered - so no need to worry just yet...

Nosky, Westminster, UK

Security? In all the years the IRA killed and maimed we NEVER resorted to this kind of intrusion.

Easy way round this. Buy unregistered SIM's and change every 6 months. No more contract mobiles! Use SecWay to encrypt messenger traffic, PGP for mail encryption, infra red rimmed hat to blind CCTV

ian, London, UK

Old communism didn't die it only became New Labour! If Cameron wants to be voted in for sure, ditch big brother initiatives, ditch speed camera partnerships and make all of them redundant, bring back cops on the beat and make them accountable to the public whom they currently pretend to serve.

Jack, Glasgow, Scotland

Troy, "this crazy scheme undermines everything that a fair and democratic society stands for"

This isn't a democratic society; it's a feudal one, with a gloss of democracy. The English Civil War merely displaced the nobility in favour of the bourgoisie.

Phil Culmer, Southend on Sea,

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin. By their actions terrorists work outside the law, so they will be unaffected. Accepting this is putting shackles onourselves. Bill of rights anyone?

Matthew S, London,

I've just about had enough of this government. Can't someone tell them that 1984 was supposed to be a novel, not a manual!

Ben Maughan, Wellington, UK

Encryption is useful, and should be used on all occasions, but traffic analysis is equally useful - they're interested in who's talking to whom, as well as what they're saying. Google "anonymous remailers".

Phil Culmer, Southend on Sea,

That's my line drawn in the sand, If this is ever placed on the statute books another family of taxpayers is off. I urge all of you to go to http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/, locate your member of parliament and vent your spleens. One never knows, democracy, will of the people and all that.

Paul Kelly, Hove, England

'welcome on board'
who says China is no human right, UK does the same things as well.

Lee, Beijing, China

As our civil service is still using 90's security techniques, this is not viable. It could be done but would require investment and professionals to implement and run it which would cost too much. We'd then probably privatize it by selling the contract to the japanese or french.

Matt, Antibes, France

If I recall correctly, the reason the EU is putting this forward is that the UK govt suggested it to them in the first place. That way the govt can pass the blame onto Brussels. This govt is even more slippery than you think.

Shane Smith, Brisbane, Australia

Bearing in mind that at least 95% of all email in circulation is spam, one wonders how "they" will ever be able to sift out anything relevant?

Plus, of course, most of the other observations above as well..

Bob H, Sonning,

Such a proposal is as impractical as it is illiberal. Anyone wanting to encrypt email securely can easily do so using free programs readily available on the internet. Anyone with a reason for doing so will prevent it being read, while the rest of us face the risk of data loss.

Maria, Leeds,

This is nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism and all to do with public control.

Any terrorist of genuine intent and capability will mask any messaging with code or use an alternative method.

Get government off our backs for goodness sake.

George Ball, Diss,

Sounds like something the Gestapo dreamed up.

Robert, Dallas, USA

Its all heading towards getting that microchip/mark on either the right hand or forehead that Revelation 13:16-18 and 14:9-11 speaks about.
Click on the mark of the beast (666).
If they can "chip" everyone then they can find us any moment of any day via global satellite positioning.

G.Gibson, Sydney, Australia

Just more evidence of the coming New World Order

TJ Poynton, Bristol,

“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
Revelation 13:16-17
Sadly we're getting there...

Mario, milton keynes,

This is yet another example of this Country becomming a Dictatorship
They cannot be trusted witht exixting Dater Bases they are always losing THEM so what chance have we with this Daft idea
I would NOT trust them with anything

A Hammond, Egham, Surrey

A step too far, in the wrong direction. If Labour push ahead with this bill, they will legislate themselves out of government.

Khaled, London,

What a wonderful way to get people to start writing letters again! Or perhaps, they'll start censoring them next....

allison, Germany,

Why not just have us chipped and pinned and barcoded at birth. Our motors cars are to be fitted with satellite surveillance for road charging, id cards, bins chipped for refuse disposal, houses checked by satellite for improvements, OR we could chuck this lot out asap.

Pete, Barry, Wales

You got what you elected, and re-elected; twice.

David Masu, Zürich,

Legislation to help the poorest in the land, after the 10p tax fiasco, will take more than a year to enact. Legislation to spy on every person in the country comes in on a whim. Get this lot out, sooner rather than later.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Note that the EU directive is being used as an excuse. If you read the article, the EU require records of phone calls and text messages to be kept - the recording of email and internet access is WHOLLY the idea of the Government. We need them out. NOW. I will never vote Labour again.

Eric Pritchard, Clevedon, UK

This has gone too far. The sooner we are rid of Premier Brown and his cronies the better. If the threat of terrorism is so great then look at immigration policy for the cause and the solution. People forget we had a far greater threat from the IRA yet we did not feel the need to spy on our people

essenhigh, cape town,

ID cards, 42 day detention, blanket CCTV coverage and now this.... Orwell warned us about this kind of government.

Much more of this and emigration looks attractive. In the meantime I guess we fill their system with spam and use the TOR system to retain privacy.

Ken MacLauchlan, Haslemere, UK

Use the TOR network. Use anonymous proxies. Use PGP for your emails

FIGHT BIG BROTHER

And lets get the HELL out of the EU

Jeremy Poynton, Frome, Somerset

How else could Gordon listen to ALL the people?!

David, Hereford,

The terrorists and organised crime have nothing to fear. They can use unregistered/ disposable mobile phones and internet cafes. Another waste of time and the taxpayers money.

C Byrne, Pinner, Middlesex

Alarmingly, this has originated as an EU Directive, and while our politicians continue our membership to keep big business happy, we can expect more of the same. With so much Spam around, presumably the database would in reality comprise the largest collection of porn and Viagra adverts in existence

DavidL, East Preston, England

A Home Office spokesman said the Bill was needed to reflect changes in communication that would “increasingly undermine our current capabilities to obtain communications data and use it to protect the public”.

By which they mean, "protect the powers that be".

Jeremy Poynton, Frome, Somerset

I Hope that in return for yet another abuse of our freedom, all emails, internet sites accessed , text messages etc by the politicians will be made publically available each day, for our perusal? surely those who seek to protect us have nothing to hide?

psst don't mention expenses!

Alan, london, england

This is another disgusting example of the death of democracy. Terrorists are being allowed to enter society because the ridiculous morons in the EU have allowed the use of the Human Rights Act to prevent us sending these wretched people back home where they belong.

Christine Constable, Norwich, England

Years ago the EU recommended that all email should use digital signatures and encryption to prevent Echelon ( a global network of computers intercepting all electronic communication.) from snooping.
Now is the time for all users to do just that. At the very least it would annoy the snoopers.

Bernard, Edinburgh, Scotland

I better not write a thoughtcrime here about what theyre proposing or i maybe sent for re-programming.

This totalitarian government ran by champagne socialist turncoats needs stopping.

ID cards were Mr. Howards idea while serving in Mr Majors governent, Mr Blair described them as a waste of money.

mikemilburn, Hull, HMP England

1st give us your guns,(we will protect you.)violent crime goes up anyway. 2nd we will install cameras and watch your every move.(It's for your protection). Crime continues to go up. 3rd let us read your e-mails and listen to your phone calls.(It's for the public good). 4th Orwell was right !

Dan Cooper, Carson City, Nevada, USA

Perhaps there is a way to establish networks of computers that will simply send billions and billions of randomly generated text messages to each other, to flood any such system with massive volumes of data?

Nick, Rotherham, UK

Is this Britain or East Germany?

John, London,

What happened to privacy and freedom? Why did we beat the Nazis in the first place. For THIS fascism? The US have it right - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are not suggestions there, they are absolute rights. So is privacy. And freedom. Did Fascism win in Europe after all? Seems maybe.

David, Norfolk,

Outstanding. Yet another triumph of fantasy over reality. The government really do believe that a database of billions of texts, emails, and web browses, can be economically collected and safely stored.

This is an administrative impossibilty, and highly unsafe for the citizen.

Edward Bancroft, Ipswich, UK

This is a ridiculous approach to the problem. Governments are using the threat of terrorism to pass draconian laws and snoop on people without their consent. This is gross invasion of privacy and any government who supports this should be voted out of office.

John Taylor, London,

This is outrageous. I feel violated that all my phonecalls and text messages are being stored on a database somewhere. I can't believe this is already happening and people don't know about it. Its a complete invasion of our privacy and i feel uncomfortable knowing my every move is being recorded!

pom, london,

There is not an ounce of viability left in the land of politics, their propaganda speaks for itself.

D Stanley, Birmingham, England

To take just one example; How would such a database have saved Charles de Menezes' life? However, storage systems' salesmen must be salivating. Given the experience of the NHS and DSS, could such a system ever be made to work?

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If the UK is willing to go this far before an "incident" how far will they go after a big one??? I think in addition to this which I agree with they ought to show Islamic fundamentalists the back door out of the country - quickly - for their own safety.

Joe Ironsides, Minerstown, USA

Why not? There are more terrorists in the UK than in the rest of Europe combined. Give the police a chance to help with the problem.

Vic Cedar, Scottsdale, USA

I'd prefer the random terror from a nutty bomber than the organised terror of an ever more Fascist state.

Will this be included in any manifesto?
It's up to the press and media to help expose the real meaning behind this state sponsored paranoia.

Tom Taylor-Duxbury, Ludlow, UK

Hmm, time to leave, methinks. No doubt many others will feel the same. I wouldn't trust this lot with a stamp collection, let alone a national database.

Chris Parsons, Graffham, UK

Just shows how Stalinist our Labour government is. They shold be ashamed.

WR
Ledbury

William Edmund Rickarby, Ledbury,

You're joking aren't you? this is exactly the kind of thing Britain would do.

Barney, Leicester, UK

Nope- not about security. It's about subjugation. Forcing every grandmother to remove her shoes and trash her shampoo to board an airplane does nothing to stop terrorists. Likewise, reading everyone's mail isn't about security- it's about control.

"Security" is just an excuse..

Mike Best, Greensboro, NC, USA

Jack, Los Angeles - Now you know why the vast majority of the people hate Brown and his band of know-it-alls.

Brian Parsons, Lydney, Gloucestershire

A little nervous writing this less it is plucked from the records and I am tried as a heretic, but cant naughty big brother already pick us up any time they like.?
A mega database may speed up the trap is all. Maybe they should back it up this time...

alex, Roussilon, France

Time to invest in an encryption programme methinks. This would be a total abuse of my privacy. More evidence of the rise of the neo-Nazi state.

Stephen, St. Ives, England

Under the same principle all the Post Office would open all your letters and scan them into a database just in case you were discussing anything untoward.

Also, the government would have access to who wrote this message!

Truly shocking.

Charlie, Ramsey,

Will Be hard for them to monitor unregistered pay as you go sim cards also people will just start texting bogus and coded messages as diversions

Neil, London,

Jack,

You don't know the half of it. We've got the largest amount of surveillance cameras watching us, the largest amount of speed cameras catching us... we're encournaged to rat on our neibours, subject to arrest without charge.. the list is endless and one of the reasons so many people emigrate

Raymon, London,

As so often with the EU and this Government the solution is worse than the problem. As 100% security is impossible can someone explain how close to 100% this plan would bring us. My guess is nowhere near as it might catch perpetrators rather discourage them. I prefer NO big brother,.

Nick Guyatt, Gosseldange, Luxembourg

Oh, and you better beware all ye who comment on one of these blogs.

You are being watched!

Wullie, Luss, Scotland

Dear UK gov't:

If you have anywhere near as much trouble building this monstrosity as you have with recent NHS IT projects, you could always outsource it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye/print

Nice company you're keeping.

Martin, Singapore, Singapore

I'm sure Charles de Menezes' family will be glad to hear that Britain will become safer.

I also agree with Pete from Wolverhampton; end all emails "Insha'Allah".

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

It may be called the EU - but it's changing quickly into the EUSSR. But even in Soviet Russia they didn't have the facility for the kind of surveillance and abuse of personal freedoms the EUSSR has planned.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

Hah hah - I intend to get made redundant in the next round of credit crunch - get retrained as a plumber and move to mainland Europe where theres a shortage and live in the sun.

Inflation through the roof. Petrol up nearly 30% on last year. Proposed mandatory medication through water - why not?

James, Glasgow,

As long as governments react to the terrorists and change our way of life - the terrorist have won.

Stop concentrating on defence and start putting serious resources on attack.

Place the onus and responsibility clearly on the religious leadership of islam to disavow these individuals.

Jonathan Mills, Brighton,

Iy is very, VERY clear that the longevity of the current government has permitted a large cadre of civil servants to feel unassailable and to become increasingingly detached from the world we all live in. Civil servants should be on a one-off, fixed term contract of three years to avoid this rot.

Ed, Cardiff,

How much is it going to cost us?

Kate, Portsmouth, UK

Goodness, just imagine if the CIA were able to penetrate or worse still, were given access to this proposed database, there would be people renditioned to Guatanamo or some other 'out-of-the-way place for interrogation about some text message that questioned the sanity of the US Admin or Brit Govt!

Rex, Kathmandu, Nepal

We used to be innocent until proven guilty. Under this authoritarian Labour government we are all being treated as guilty until proven innocent.

The double outrage is that taxpayers are being be made to pay for this Orwellian nightmare.

Ian, London, UK

Truly Orwellian.

Mandatory DNA data-base, ID cards, fingerprints, face recognition software, surveilance cameras, surveilance microphones, the recording of every phone call / e-mail / text, the centralisation of tax / social security / property ownership / medical records

New Labour Freedom!

Wullie, Luss, Scotland

No the whole of Europe is not doing this and civil liberties protections are now taken more seriously in many EU states than in the UK. For all of the talk about how terrible America is these days at least there are more solid individual liberty protections. I would never live in the UK again.

Jamie, Washington DC, USA

It's more than a new Magna Carta that we need, we need a written constitution and a bill of rights.

Paul, Coventry,

This proposal is the final insult. If I lived in Europe - I would leave.

richard, bangkok,

When you're more afraid of the police and government than the criminals, it's time to fly the coop. When I began discussing "Police State UK" back in the mid '90's, everyone said I was paranoid. What do you think now? Settled on your emigration destination yet?

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

Really? They have more CCTV cameras videotaping public spaces in London than anywhere in the world.

Why would this shock you?

johnny, Los Angeles,

Unfortunately so. Since Labour got in to power we've had a succession of Laws passed each designed to further erode our privacy and democracy.

www.no2id.net

www.writetothem.com

M Merrick, Swanley, UK

Get out while you can.

Pu Li, Guangxi, PRC

Gives one pause to wonder; who's to gain financially given the inevitable need for warehousing and Disaster Recovery of all these terabytes of data?

Has anyone in authority at the Home Office plans to retire to the private sector? Happens here all the time.

Larry, Middletown,

If true, this is totally outrageous. If we cannot block this in Europe this is sufficient reason to leave the EU. Jack, you obviously haven't been in the UK for some time. Sadly this is all too common here. We are evolving into an authoritarian state.

Ian Burgess, Bristol,

are you they mental, this crazy scheme undermines everything that a fair and democratic society stands for.

Do not use terrorism as an excuse four punitive combative measures such as this that are targeted at 99% of law abiding citizens. If this gets up it will have global ramifications for all.

Troy , Traralgon, Australia

Tell me about it and i live in the middle of it

Nicola Clubb, bournemouth,

"but Britain is one of the LAST places i would expect to have this kind of big brother state.... "

Jack, are you kidding? Britain is the model 'Nanny State'. London has the highest concentration of surveillance cameras aimed at the general public.

Gopal, Houston, USA

That's horrible, where are we going with this, I never thought this could be possible...

Joaquim, Paris, France

I'm not afraid of terrorists - but, the government I do find frightening. The data commisioner warns that we are sleep walking into a surveillance society - ordinary people are the victims: if there are terrorists, this won't stop them. Somebody stop the government creeps!

James, Tunbridge Wells, UK

This already exists.

Dave, dallas, USA

But who says I or you need/want to feel safe? Who asked me this question in the fist place? Did I miss something in my email or letterbox? This cannot be put be put into practice, and you [this paper] should follow the trail like a bloodhound.

susan rattray, murwillumbah, australia

absolutely petrifying. Sounds like we need a new Magna Carta.

Damien, Hornsey, UK

The excessive amount of data collected would likely make such a system unworkable in achieving whatever goals that it was intended to achieve...

Nevertheless, I agree that this proposal is very scary.

Cheers.

Rob Miller, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

What if the terrorists just send each other regular 2nd class letters to plot their next crime?

David, York,

Why why why?

Keeping tabs on everyone's private business because the authorities can't keep control over the minority who abuse the system?

It's like some sort of long-running sick joke.

Eleanor, Yorkshire,

It would have been helpful if the article had put this in context. If it's a Brussels directoive, does this mean the whole of Europe is doing it too? And either way, what does the US do now?

philip, london, UK

It would have been helpful if the article had put this in context. If it's a Brussels directoive, does this mean the whole of Europe is doing it too? And either way, what does the US do now?

philip evans, london, UK

So every time one of you guys or gals creates a new email addy, someone is going to forward it to a database? Given the any arbitrary government's dismal record for security of such things, how long will it take for the spammers to point their botnets and go to work?

Tom, USA,

The world is going mad and we are letting these bureaucrats do it because we are too complacent. Strange how all the public is now being regarded as the enemy - now we are all the 'foe' including those that are advocating this. Or cannot they see that? Paranoia and ignorance rules: freedom loses.

Bill, Perth, Australia

'What is going on' Jack is called a Labour Government which since 1997 have erected the most CCTV camera's in the world and is hell bent on control of the people in any fashion available. However the Country is waking up and they will be thrown out (possibly for ever) at the next election.

Roger, Surrey,

The government and ministers have proven that they cannot be trusted with our private information, leave it with the private companies who actually have to abide by the law, unlike the ministers who can get away with almost anything!

J Geering, Norwich, UK

Yes its the death of Britain, and especially that of free speech.

They will kill each and every site that speaks out against immigration, or points out another death caused by Nu Labour's immigration invasion policy.

This is not freedom, its BIG BROTHER.

Chris, Ely, England

The malevolence by far outweighs any benevolence in such a sinister scheme.

I will vote for the politics that opposes such "totally intrusive" nonsense.

Brown, you're GONE!

Billy Blobbs, London,

this is not for security only its to use information to twist peoples arm to get information

In russian they use tax fraud to 'get' people who dare to have an opinion

david, bexleyheath,

What a seriously pointless exercise if indeed security is the reason.
Anyone now wishing to communicate about acts of terrorism will revert to cheap and readily available radio transmissions with a scrambler attached. Simple, effective and secret.

Ashley Balls, Auckland, New Zealand

Utter madness! Will the Tories have the guts to fight it the way they are opposing 42 day detention. Secretly, I suspect they also love the Big Brother state. It hasn't done George Bush any good. The British government is completely incompetent in this area and will be doing the criminals work.

oldasiahand, Guildford, UK

Looks like our government have had 1984 read to them a la Jackanory (I doubt that they are intelligent enough to read it themselves) and didn't realise that it's fiction.

There's an easy way to wreck this totalitarian idea though-use words like Ak47, bomb explosive etc. in ordinary conversations.

Pete, wolverhampton,

Hey, we had twenty-four more years than Orwell predicted... I'd say that's pretty good.

Andy, Seattle, USA

Your telling us. Its quite a shock, really.

Monty, Bristol, England

WOW. What is the deal britain?
I know its for security, but Britain is one of the LAST places i would expect to have this kind of big brother state....

Very scary

jack, Los Angeles, USA