The IMP - the death knell for freedom and privacy.

The purpose of the Internet Modernisation Bill is to record each and every email, phone call and internet search made by every UK person, in line with EU directives; and record every poke, twitter, profile update and IM conversation on social networking sites. It is clear that the powers-that-be care nothing whatsoever for individuality, privacy or the right of the individual to privacy. 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils and the Financial Services Authority. They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

Can this be the same Great Britain that fought the Nazis in the second World War? Is it the same country that stood up against the Soviet threat? That rejoiced in the collapse of the eastern Bloc? That sends under-equipped armies half-way around the world to fight dictators who suppress free-speech? 

You either believe in the freedom of the individual or you don't. You either believe in the right to privacy or you don't. There are no half-measures.

A Government of a free country allows its citizens to think freely, associate freely and have unfettered and unthreatened privacy. The incipient IMP is an outrage and a blatant expression of a Government that does not trust its citizens and seeks to control them.

This is enough to start building the barricades...