And what brings me to this staggering conclusion? Well the fact that our wonderful British government, those men and women who purport to support our right to freedom of speech have finally admitted that that want us to have no such thing

Instead they want access to every phone call, be that land line or mobile, every text message and every e-mail that each and every one of us sends.

Of course they hide this Orwellian intrusion behind the all embracing panoply of "Anti t-e-r-r-o-r-i-s-m but can they really justify this intrusion into our day to day lives? I always thought not but apparently that's no longer true.

And to prove how far these powers have already spread I used this "t-e-r-r-o-r-i-s-m" because if I type this word "terrorism" and you now put your mouse pointer on it you'll see that it has AUTOMATICALLY become a link to the Metropolitan Police's website. I did not put that link in, the blogging software already does it whether I (or you the reader) want it to

That mindless moron JacquI Smith, merely one of Gordon Browns collection of sycophants has claimed that the storing of details of our individual communications was 'vital' in the prevention of terrorist activities.

These governmental eyes over your shoulder will hit first on sites like Facebook, Bebo, auction sites like Ebay, the gambling and gaming sites and chatrooms.

Oh and of course Ms Smith assures us that the police and security (where? where?) services won't be able to access the excat content of these communications, merely when and to whom the communication was made. If this provokes a kneejerk from some headphone wearing lacky THEN a ministerial warrant can be sought so that the full content can be intercepted.

But hold on a moment. If the contact has already happened why raise a warrant? What will there be to study? There may possibly be no more contact made and so, to my cynical mind, they have every intention of storing every damn thing Just in case it might prove useful.

And who exactly lays the guide lines as to what is useful and can open the gates for further 'delving' ? We know the government can and often will screw things up when they're dealing with the information they have now. Just give them a billion times more and what kind of rod are we creating for our collective backs?

I know first hand how the security forces can really screw things up. Back in the early 80s I was working for a branch of H.M.G which required me to have a particular level of clearance. I worked in the department for 18 months and suddenly - I didn't!
I had been positively vetted again and suddenly I was "a risk". I apparently overnight had become a receiver of stolen goods (seriously!) and was also having an affair. Both of these were total bullsh*t and my senior officers started the extremely long winded and difficult task of getting me exonerated. In the end they succeeded simply because the information supposedly detailing my heinous acts was found to no longer exist as in fact it never had. It was a screw up. And this was in the days BEFORE computers came along.

Theres an old expression which was altered as follows.
To err is human but to really screw things you need a computer. I would suggest that the last part will soon read ... to really screw things you need a government funded and approved security computer system.

Of course the government aren't going to do this out of their, sorry our pockets directly. Oh no they are considering forcing the telephone companies and information providers to store all this data for the government offices to access on demand. Is it just me or can I see my bills going through the roof to fund this unwarranted intrusion into my life?

Now Ms Smith thinks it's all very jolly hockey sticks and came up with this pile of wombat's dung.
Of course, even if there had not been events(government speak for data losses) the British public would have every right to be sceptical about a state activity that involves the collection of data.
DAMN RIGHT WE DO!
She then tries to placate us in her normally smarmy way by telling us that there are no plans for an enormous database containing the content of our emails, text messages and phone calls. No plans? This government has based it's entire regime on having no plans about a damned thing until they've slid some law or other under the doors of legislative imposition claiming it's a 'needs must'.

When we're already in a society where if you fart, pick your nose or sneeze, somebody somewhere seems to know about it, does she really think we believe that our once bastion of freedom, The British Isles, already a country grouping drowning under the imposition of rules and regulations from the laughable and lamentable European governing body is safe in her and Teflon Brown's hands?
If she does she's a bigger fool than I took her for.