'Taking Liberties' (M4 Tues 6 May 10pm) is an (often amusing!) exploration of the shocking number of government attacks on civil liberties that have occurred since the New Labour government took power in 1997.
Excellent film. Thanks Channel 4 for giving this some airtime - though obviously shows like "Big Brother" glamorize surveillance.
"Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is a classic statement you might expect from O'Brien in 1984 that simply legitimises his acts of surveillance and torture. It does not stand up to intelligent scrutiny on any level. Why use envelops rather than postcards? Why lock your front door? Why keep your pin number concealed? Surely this a case of one rule for the general public and one rule for the government/people conducting the surveillance? Surely what it comes down to is wealth and power for a small elite?
In a free society people are allowed to hide things - we do it all the time - we don't share all our thoughts with everyone we meet - we don't tell people how much we earn. It's part of being British - having a stiff upper lip.
Yet for many years popular culture in the UK and US has always portrayed the state as the good guys and the criminal faction as the bad ones e.g. Bond, 24, the general news media and so on. Being nosy no longer is regarded as a social stigma but instead something normal and acceptable.
However increasingly with the arrival of films like Minority Report, The Bourne Ultimatum and others people are beginning to question the state's belligerence and contempt for its citizens' rights.
There is a growing unease about the omnipotent cctv that litters most of the street's in the UK's major cities and when a few years ago it was discovered MI5 had bugged the Malham Women's Institute there was hesitant laughter - what possible reason could the security services have for doing that?
The truth it seems is that Blair has pioneered the surveillance state by exploiting the fear of terrorism. As the film argues Blair has turned the UK into one giant Panopticon.
