The government says is considering including a Bill in next month's Queen's Speech to extend its ability to monitor all phone calls, emails and Internet use in the UK, a Bill which would force ISPs to install hardware on their servers which would enable GCHQ, the government's spy headquarters, to access "on demand" communications data stored on them without the necessity of first obtaining a court order.
This would allow the government to monitor everyone in the UK's emails, phone calls and which web sites they have visited.
Every email to your child, every status update for your friends, every message to your mistress, all would be monitored by GCHQ, at all times.
The Home Office Minister, James Brokenshire, has denied that it is the government's intention to form a giant database,"absolutely not" he says, and insists that the content of the calls, emails etc will not be monitored - just where and when they were made or sent, and to whom, and of course we believe him, and who will be able, once this facility is in place, to prove otherwise.
He has also said that the reading of people's Facebook conversations by GCHQ would be "disproportionate", although he doesn't say they won't do it, and does admit they could be "looked at", and if that isn't 'reading' what is?
When the last Labour government tried to introduce a similar Bill the present coalition partners opposed it, it hasn't taken them long to change their minds.
Nick Pickles, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, has said the move is "an unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran".
Conservative MP Dominic Raab says it would "fundamentally change the nature of the relationship between the state and the citizen" and turn every individual "into a suspect".
At present, our freedom and privacy is protected by the courts by saying: 'If you want to intercept someones private conversations and it is a terrorist or a criminal, go and ask a Magistrate to approve your request.'
Conservative MP David Davis said the planned changes would remove that protection
and in an interview with the BBC went on to say that "you shouldn't go beyond that in a decent, civilised society, but that is what is being proposed."
The cost of installing the tens of thousands of specialised pieces of hardware to monitor the country's Internet traffic by ISPs is expected to run into billions of pounds, a cost which Internet Service Providers would have little choice but to pass it on to their customers so that British Internet users would be paying extra to allow their government to spy on them more effectively.
Big Brother would not only be watching you, but would be charging you for the privilege.
Some, particularly government ministers, in an attempt to justify these plans, will no doubt say what, throughout history, every tyrant that ever existed has said to excuse their mechanics of repression and surveillance:
"It's for your own good''
"It's for the greater good of all"
"It's to combat dissidents"
"Law-abiding people have nothing to fear"
These very same sentiments were expressed by Hitler, Stalin and Chairman Mao and are used now by tyrannical regimes worldwide, be it China, Iran or North Korea.
David Morrish, a long serving Liberal Party councillor expounded the Liberal Party's principles before the last election when he said that the party was born out of the struggle for individual freedom and that "We will fight excessive government interference".
The Liberal Party's main pre-election manifesto stated quite clearly that they, the Liberal Party existed to create a liberal society and that they opposed the “Database” State.
The Colchestaer Conservative Association articulated the principles of the Conservative Party by saying that the core Conservative principles which provide the basis for all policy are that Conservatives stand for less interference from the state – freedom for individuals, families, voluntary groups and businesses and that they believe that the more you trust people, the more power and responsibility they are given, the stronger they and society become.
I never thought I would live to see the day that a Conservative-led government, in partnership with the Liberals, would be prepared to ignore these sentiments.
It shows that their so-called principles are no such thing and that they will set them aside, and all the traditions of freedom that countless millions have given their lives for, in their pursuit of power, power pure and simple over what was once a free people.
