The Government is set to announce a frightening and controversial new scheme that plans to hold data records of every phone call, email and all online usage of every single resident of the UK. Essentially this scheme will treat everyone like a suspect. Planned to be announced in the Queen's Speech this autumn, the database will be made available to the security and law enforcement agencies, local councils, and "other public bodies".


So let’s recap, not only is your every move being watched by a CCTV camera, not only is the government seeking to lock you away for 42 days based merely on suspicion, but now a truly shocking open war is being waged upon the privacy and civil liberty of every citizen of our nation. Can you imagine a local council employee sifting through your emails, reading your private text messages, checking what websites you've been accessing?

Even more disturbing is the opportunity which arises for criminals to attack such databases for the purposes of identity theft or even blackmail! The Government's track record of keeping our data safe leaves much to be desired.

How will people react to this "Big Brother-esque" innovation? Will they take to the streets and protest, will there be absolute outrage? Or will the so called 'threat of terrorism' justify such draconian measures?

What ever happened to the notion of innocent until proven guilty?