Three cheers again this morning for the Information Commissioner, despite his Orwellian title. He has spoken out against the build up of personal data by government and large companies, and the cavalier way they often handle it. It is all part of Labour’s 1984 vision of society, with ever more cameras on street corners and main roads, with ever more lectures on how we should lead our lives from Ministers who have no intention of playing by the same rules, with ever more charges, taxes and fines from government agencies, and endless forms to fill in before you are allowed to go about your daily business. This is a government that wants to make more criminals, by creating endless more offences that people may inadvertently commit because of the complexities and pettifogging triviality of so many of the new dos and dont’s.We now have a Ministry of Justice, and doubtless the government’s massive swollen propoganda department will be known soon as the Ministry of Truth!

Unfortunately, The Commisioner’s complaints will not change this government’s approach. I don’t expect to see?? a quango cull, repeal legislaiton to cut back on the amount of regulaiton, or the removal of cameras and surveillance equipment. If Gordon Brown was serious about wanting to trust people more, and to reconnect with the public, he would take the Commissioner more seriously and demand a bonfire of controls.

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