Database - Jacqui Smith thinks it's OK to spy on us.

Forget civil liberties. Jacqui Smith believes that creating a mass database containing all of our electronic communication is a great idea. Her justification is that the database will make it easier for police and the security services to investigate crime and terrorism. And that's true. However, giving the police guns, and then allowing them to shoot anyone they think could be breaking the law would also make their job a lot easier, but that is clearly not the right thing to do.

Our communication details are already held by individual companies for 12 months, and they are available to the police on request. But that is not the same as a mass database under the control of the government. This is a massive step in the wrong direction. The next step in that direction would be to start recording the contents of our communications without having to worry about those silly civil liberty thingies.

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald said:

"This database would be an unimaginable hell house of personal private information. It would be a complete read-out of every citizen's life in the most intimate and demeaning detail."

Not only is this database an injury to our civil liberties, it will also be incredibly costly if this government's track record is anything to go by. Can you believe that at a time when we are all going to struggle, our idiotic government wants to waste billions of pounds of OUR money to spy on us? - They are totally clueless.