Ever & ever closer to 1984, yet no one sees it...

Bring back Mrs. T!

Further to my serious and well-founded concerns that the UK government is on a mission to turn Britain into a full-scale Orwellian police state, where movement, freedom & even thoughts are controlled, the government now plans a register, where all our travel is monitored & stored, and when necessary, used against us.


Next step: The Exit Visa - I bet we'll need to apply for, and pay for one of these each time we want to leave the UK, or maybe even our own part of the UK.

I hate to say it, but most of what I've forecast has come to pass....

• ID Cards
• DNA Database
• Surveillance Society & CCTV
• Biometric Passports
• Loss of the right to travel - it only has to be requested
• Monitoring of phone, email & internet traffic
• Satellite tracking of vehicles

The government is compiling a database to track and store the international travel records of millions of Britons.

 

Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years. The government says the database is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. But opposition MPs and privacy campaigners fear it is a significant step towards a surveillance society.

The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details of travellers. 

Big Brother

 

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "The government seems to be building databases to track more and more of our lives. "The justification is always about security or personal protection. But the truth is that we have a government that just can't be trusted over these highly sensitive issues. We must not allow ourselves to become a Big Brother society."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "This is another example of an intrusive database without any public debate about safeguards on its use. "We are sleepwalking into a surveillance state and should remember that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not a blueprint."

A spokesman for campaign group NO2ID said: "When your travel plans, who you are travelling with, where you are going to and when are being recorded you have to ask yourself just how free is this country?"

The e-Borders scheme covers flights, ferries and rail journeys and the Home Office says similar schemes run in other countries including the US, Canada, Spain and Australia. Minister of State for borders and immigration Phil Woolas said the government was determined to ensure the UK's border remained one of the toughest in the world. "Our hi-tech electronic borders system will allow us to count all passengers in and out of the UK and [it] targets those who aren't willing to play by our rules," he said.

"Already e-Borders has screened over 75 million passengers against immigration, customs and police watch-lists, leading to over 2,700 arrests for crimes such as murder, rape and assault."

Where will it all end?

Torchwood.

(Google 'George Orwell, 1984' for a worrying comparison of his fictional view of the UK in 1984, and where we'll possibly be for real, maybe in 2014)