Even spies are afraid of Big Brother now: Orwell was right--The Big Brother State has arrived, even if it has come 20 years late, Current affairs

Current affairs

Even spies are afraid of Big Brother now: Orwell was right--The Big Brother State has arrived, even if it has come 20 years late

BY WILLIAM REES-MOGG

The United States and Europe are our main allies, but both also have to be regarded as threats to British liberty: Europe because the whole system of the European Union is lacking in openness and democracy. European laws, secretly arrived at, have replaced our open parliamentary democracy. That is a great tragedy. And America is a threat because it is the information superpower, with more data about British people than would ever have been authorised by statute.

Now the United States is being given access to European information on private individuals under a secret agreement that has never been before Parliament. That gives Big Brother an even tighter grip. One has to accept the legitimacy of the US campaign against terrorism, but we must understand the extraordinary power over individuals that data collection has given.

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