British freedoms are in danger - Burstow

2.44.00pm GMT Fri 23rd Jan 2009

MP for Sutton and Cheam, Paul Burstow, has issued a stark warning about how the Government is eroding individual freedoms and privacy. Evidence of the threat to civil liberties came recently with a Cheam school boy stopped by a PCSO in Wimbledon while photographing the station for a school project.

In a speech to a local church group, Mr Burstow detailed how under the current Government the UK has become one of the most watched nations on earth. Britain also has the largest DNA database in the world; one which so far includes 100,000 children, all of whom have not even been convicted of a single offence, nor even charged or cautioned.

Most worrying of all was the Home Office announcement in October of a consultation on plans for legislation allowing the Government access to every phone call, email and text message made by everyone in Britain. It is estimated to cost £12bn.

Commenting after giving his speech Mr Burstow said

'Our freedoms are not something we should ever take for granted. We cannot afford to be complacent under a Government who have introduced 3,600 new offences and have criminalised peaceful and legitimate protests.

'The government want to watch our emails, monitor our phone calls and scan our text messages, as well as planning to take 19 pieces of information from us every time we go abroad and record each journey made on a motorway or through a town centre using Number Recognition Cameras.

'These schemes are expensive; £12bn for data collection, £5bn for ID cards, and the Government hardly has a good record when it comes to keeping our data safe. But more importantly they are the building blocks of a security state which we in danger of sleepwalking into.'

Notes to Editors:

Schoolboy Fabian Sabbara, 15, of Cheam, was stopped in October by three PCSOs for taking photos of Wimbledon station on his mobile phone, while dressed in his school uniform, as part of a geograpahy GCSE project. Mr Burstow is in touch with the family.