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The mantra of this Labour government under Gordon Brown, and Tony Blair before him, that if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear sounds, on the face of it, a reasonable argument to a public who don't think past the words and fail to realise just how stupid and innacurate that slogan is, for that is all it is - a meaningless slogan.We all have something to hide, and not only our bank account passwords and PIN numbers.How many people would be so happy to repeat out loud that they have nothing to hide and nothing to fear if they knew their National Health Service records were to be accessible by over 300,000 people at the click of a mouse. How many would say they have nothing to fear if that information was to be accessed by, say, the company who they would like to get life...

25 million peoples identities on the loose. Names, addresses, dates of birth, Child Benefit numbers, National Insurance numbers and bank or building society account details, stuffed unencrypted onto two CD's by a junior official in a government department and lost in the post.I can, and do, encrypt the files on my Mac with a click of a mouse but officials dealing with valuable and sensitive data, our data, don't even bother to do that.Government assurances on the safety and confidentiality of the public's most private details will, finally if belatedly, surely wake up those complacent sleepy sheep who constantly bleat: "If you've got nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear."Whether you've got anything to hide or not, you've got everything to fear.Government assurances that our bank...

Beneath our very noses, Bush and his administrationare using time-tested tactics toclose down an open society.Naomi Wolf gives a frightening rundown of the methods used by would-be dictators to destroy constitutional freedoms.If you look at history, she argues, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective.It is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy2. Create a gulag3. Develop a thug caste4. Set up an internal surveillance system5. Harass...

The most spied-upon society in Europe, with more CCTV cameras than the rest of the European Union combined, Britain under New Labour and Tony Blair has become a Surveillance Society, the British a people without a basic right of privacy.Identity cards and biometric recognition on the way, the national DNA database (which the inventor himself has described as out of control) being steadily added to with the details of ordinary, innocent people.A £224 million national children's index planned, which will contain the details of every child in Britain. Everything from vaccinations, developmental information, whether a child is eating enough fruit and vegetables, or is struggling in the classroom. Two warning flags on a child's record could trigger an investigation.Sebastian and Samantha are...