I bet Britons are wishing for a modern day Guy Fawkes

Back in 1600’s there was a growing feeling of discrimination against the English Roman Catholics to the point that there was a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament while King James 1 and the entire Protestant aristocracy and nobility were inside. Guy Fawkes was the man that the conspiracy put in charge of executing the plan but ended up being caught before he could light the fuse. Fast forward to today and we have a country that has the heaviest use of surveillance cameras and databases to watch its citizens. It is said that a person can be tracked as they travel from one end of London to the other.

Even though there have been numerable; and reputable, studies done that have proven that this type of surveillance does little to combat actual crime the English government continues with its surveillance of the countries population. Now it might be one thing to shrug off the use of CCTV and other forms of surveillance within you own country but it appears that the English government wants to take this one step further,

According to an article by David Leppard in today’s Times Online the government is building a secret database to track and hold the international travel records of all 60 million Britons. The data center will store the names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details for each and every one of the 250 million passengers as they travel in and out of England every year.

Some immigration officials with knowledge of the plans admit there is likely to be public concern. “A lot of this stuff will have a legitimate use in the fight against crime and terrorism, but it’s what else it could be used for that presents a problem,” said one.

“It will be able to detect whether parents are taking their children abroad during school holidays. It could be useful to the tax authorities because it will tell them how long non-UK domiciled people are spending in the UK.”

The database is also expected to monitor people’s travel companions.

Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, defended the plans. “The UK has one of the toughest borders in the world and we are determined to ensure it stays that way. Our high-tech electronic borders system will allow us to count all passengers in and out and targets those who aren’t willing to play by our rules.”

Source: Times Online

I have said this before and I will say it again – at what point to people say enough is enough when it comes to the government tracking us regardless of the country.