How our liberties have been destroyed

Since Labour was elected 12 years ago, a massive and frightening array of powers have been introduced which curtail Britain's long-fought-for commitment to the freedom of the individual.

There are 56 such freedom-destroying powers, according to the Convention on Modern Liberty.

They range from the shameful decision to ban inconvenient but peaceful protests in the vicinity of Parliament to the storage by the police of DNA samples taken from entirely innocent people.

Town Hall Stasi routinely deploy anti-terrorist powers to snoop on dog foulers and families suspected of cheating school catchment area rules.

Low-ranking officials have access to the chilling ContactPoint database containing the sensitive personal details of every child in England.

A giant new NHS database will allow confidential patient records to be accessed by health workers across the land.

The list is terrifying. But still ministers are not satisfied they have sufficient powers to pry into every aspect of our lives.

The Home Office will shortly announce details of a new Big Brother 'Intercept Modernisation Programme' which will store details of our every phone call and internet visit.

The Coroners and Justice Bill will allow the state to order inquests involving matters of national security to be held in secret if the details could prove embarrassing to ministers.

This means it will be possible to die in modern, 'civilised' Britain without anyone - not least relatives - knowing how and why.

And, as we reveal today, there will soon be compulsory CCTV cameras tracking people as they shop in supermarkets for a bottle of wine.

Without fanfare, ministers have slipped powers into the Policing and Crime Bill for councils to force any premises selling alcohol to install the cameras and hand over any relevant footage to the police.

But, if passed, it will mean there is virtually no aspect of public life not under surveillance.

Police already have 4.2million cameras trained on the streets, numberplate recognition systems watching our roads and are even, as we revealed earlier this week, insisting drinkers should be spied upon with CCTV in their local pub.

Save for places of worship, nowhere is sacred or private. Everyone is a potential suspect.

This Labour Government, in ways that would shock its socialist forebears, is systematically acquiring the tools of a totalitarian state in a way not even Orwell could have predicted.

The price we are paying in the loss of individual freedoms is awesome.

But so is the £34billion cost to the taxpayer of running the likes of ContactPoint and the ID cards database over the next decade, according to the Convention.

Yet are the watchers prepared to be watched themselves, to check they are not abusing the pervasive powers which they have amassed? Of course not.

In a display of dizzying hypocrisy, ministers this week introduced a law which makes it a criminal offence, punishable by ten years in prison, to take a picture of a police officer.

The Press will be hampered in reporting legitimate rallies at which police are present. Peaceful demonstrators will be stopped from taking their own record of events and tourists who dare to take a picture of the Pc guarding Big Ben could quickly find themselves behind bars.

Of course, the Government defends this, and the many other assaults on liberty since 1997, by pointing to the increased threat Britain faces from serious crime and terrorism.

But with every erosion of the values our enemies so despise, we hand these terrorists a victory to savour. Enough is enough.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1151408/MAIL-COMMENT-How-liberties-destroyed.html