This week Big Brother Watch, which I founded and is run by Alex Deane and Dylan Sharpe, released an election manifesto (to see the full document please click here) - a list of achievable legislative pledges that would go some way to rolling-back the surveillance state; give the British people greater freedom to live their lives without state interference; and end the persecution of the law-abiding British family.
Looking at the recent party manifestos, it is clear that the Labour Party are not willing to make any effort to correct their legacy of intrusive government - albeit having the cheek to declare they are "proud" of their record on civil liberties.
The Conservatives, by contrast, have devoted a whole section of their manifesto to the issue of privacy and freedom. We are delighted to see that they have adopted a policy of cutting back on the intrusive powers of entry that allow state inspectors into our homes – an issue Big Brother Watch tackled in our second major report.
And we also welcome the scrapping of unnecessary state databases like the National Identity Register, ContactPoint and reform of the DNA database; taking innocent people off the system and putting on the thousands of violent criminals caught before DNA technology was introduced.
At Big Brother Watch we think it should be a priority of an incoming Conservative administration to introduce proper consultation on any new CCTV system - with full scrutiny of the cost implications - and a firm commitment not to introduce “pay-as-you-throw” technology into our rubbish bins.
Longer term, Big Brother Watch would like to see a stop in the transfer of police powers to private security firms and the removal of powers to issue ‘on-the-spot’ fines from council wardens. We would also like to toughen-up the laws allowing our data to be shared with other EU countries and the introduction of a European FOI Act, so we can find out what Brussels knows about us.
To read all of the 30 pledges please go to http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/manifesto.pdf
