Hear, hear!

Adam Goldman, Epsom, UK

On leaving Dover recently,on a day trip to buy wine,I was asked where I was going.Was I going farther afield.Did I have accommodation pre-booked and was I carrying large amounts of cash.I am a British O.A.P.Meanwhile 2 other customs officers were sitting reading the paper.Perhaps they would be better employed trying to stop the vast amount of drugs entering this country.

brian, maidenhead, berks

Since all MPs do is rubber-stamp legislation from Brussels, you really don't need them at all. Let them learn what it is to live as ordinary subjects of the EU tyranny they have so negligently allowed to usurp their authority.

Cal, Nottingham, England

Alice is completely wrong about the role of an MP.

An MP is his constituency's representative. He is not an ombudsman. As Edmund Burke put it, he is his constituency's representative in Parliament, not Parliament's representative in the constituency. The former is a Whig; the latter is a governor, as in the centralised Roman tradition.

MPs have got into the complaints business out of being well meaning, lacking the skills to do their actual job and under-employment. (Being an MP is properly only a part time job, which is why some of them have time to be ministers of the crown too - the rest were once expected to have proper jobs. Dealing too much with complaints is actually a form of corruption: MPs (particularly LibDem ones) are effectively bribing their constituents to vote for them.

The last resort of the desperate is a local charity or a solicitor, unless you believe in the omnipotent state. There is no good reason why MPs should be uniquely privileged.

Scary Biscuits, Windsor, UK

I too have been asked at Dover "why are you going to France" In the past I have been to eager to be honest. Maybe next time I should ask; Why and on who's behalf you are asking? Will the response be recorded? If so for who(m) and for what puspose, tell me this and I will answer - though maybe not honestly.
No longer can the "bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance"
These control freaks are more scary than the Taliban!

Tom Taylor-Duxbury, Ludlow, Uk

Absolutely spot on!.We are the most photographed and spied on paople in the world,despite being among the most law abiding.It seems that those who would govern us don't want to be treated in the way that they treat us. Do as you would be done by is history!

kay, leeds,

The last time our national leadership achieved this degree of arrogance was in the mid-17thC. It was a rather well-known episode known as the English Civil War, when parliamentary forces challenged the assumption of unlimited authority by the crown.
The message for our MPs is simple - get rid of your bad habits and your arrogance and act as the employees that you are or we'll sack you, one way or another. If the message of 20 thousand disgruntled police isn't enough to make you pay attention, wait until it becomes 20 million disgruntled citizens.

KR, Stockport,

Perhaps a compromise would be to allow the bugging of M.P.s, but only in the office where their expenses are calculated.

Tony Pegg, Leicester, England

There's a clear message now to any budding terrorist or criminal: become an MP. Then you'll be above the law, and guess what? No training is required, you get a substantial salary, and benefit fraud is perfectly acceptable. Jammy.

Slightly off the subject: can anyone tell me why, although this country has more CCTV cameras p.c. than any other, local councils can only view footage in real time, and therefore can't tell me who stole my bike (although there's a CCTV camera on my house!) because I can't tell them the exact 4hr period during which it was pinched, and they're too lazy to watch more than that?

Emily, Cambridge,

I think another way of saying it, rather than how open an honourable member has to be, is how honourable a member has to be.

Arthur, Newcastle,

Leaving Dover for Calais (tunnel) last week, I was stopped by H.M Government and asked where I was going (!) and for how long. Since when has this been any business of H.M. Government? For the record, I am white and in my late 60s. Reminds me of visits to Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 80s.

Harry Collier, Malmesbury, UK

My view entirely.

This is another shocking esposition if such were needed of how the scope of government has expanded under Labour.

Unfortunately the growth in their "competences" (in EU speak) has not been matched by the competence of their performance. They are a bunch of buffons.

One could paraphrase Dean Acheson - MPs have lost the power to govern (to Brussels) and not found a role.

cuffleyburgers, Lucca, Italy,

It's why I left the country 10 years ago,wake up Britain you live in a state of fear.There are more spy cameras per head than in any other place on the planet.Big brother is not only watching you but has it's nose in the trough as well.Food allowance?Perhaps we need a list of all the "pork" that these people can claim.

Colin, Cebu, Philippines

I would agree we are slipping into a nightmare surveillance society that could end appallingly. But where are the crusaders and political parties willing to lead a crusade and roll back the frontiers of the potential terror of the state? Nowhere, and my guess is the security services would nobble anyone that tried seriously.

oldasiahand, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

I entirely agree with Ms Mile's article, MPs seem to regard themselves much as the gentry did in days gone by: a law unto themselves. For instance, what other profession can award itself an arbitrary pay rise? I well remember the debate about whether MPs should have outside jobs or other means of earning. The consensus was that they should not. The result has been the rise of the "career politician". If this was your only means of income, would you not sacrifice the ideal of "what's best for the population" and replace it by "what looks good in the media"? After all, we know only too well that election promises are there to be broken. It's this mentality that is so worrying about the growing European super-state.

Dwight Vandryver, Scholar Green, Cheshire, UK

As it happens, I think you are right to contrast the loss of privacy suffered by the public with the attempt by MPs to retain theirs.

But you haven't half shot yourself in the foot in making that case.

Your readers are entitled to ask: and where were you when we wanted you to speak out against the provisions of the Identity Cards Act.

Ah, yes, writing 'We face a terrible threat – so storing my dull, private details is no big deal' in the Times, 8 November 2006.

David Moss, London, UK

It appears that the politicians believe that we all tells lies and keep terrorist secrets, except themselves of course.. We must be watched and listened to inorder to protect ourselves from ourselves, so the MPs think . As most legislation boils down to money issues, the government spying is probably done to inrease the governments pot of money from fraudulent scams, such as some politicians themselves are doing, as Alice Miles has highlighted in her recent articles.Spying should apply to all, including politicians.

Jim Wills, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia