Britain has undergone a huge change in the last few years. Since 9/11, the state has developed a very different view of its’ citizens. New surveillance technologies are penetrating every aspect of our lives and we don’t even know it. Across the country, millions of cameras are watching us. The police will soon be able to record every journey we make and soon the state will want all of our fingerprints and iris scans.
Since Tony Blair’s New Labour government came to power in 1997, the UK civil liberties landscape has changed dramatically. ASBOs wereintroduced by Section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and first used in 1999. The right to remain silent is no longer universal. Our right to privacy, free from interception of communications has been severely curtailed. The ability to travel without surveillance (or those details of our journeys being retained) has disappeared.
Indeed, as Henry Porter (the Observer journalist famous for his recent email clash with Tony Blair over the paring down of civil liberties) reveals in this unsettling film, our movements are being watched, and recorded, more than ever before.
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