This kind of thing is only going to lead to the quicker progress of encryption along the lines of ThePirateBay who want to develop a totally encrypted web system by next year, rendering monitoring useless.

As Mark said, this will not deter criminals in the slightest, so what is the agenda here?

Dave, Kent,

wont this just make terrorists just encrypt emails? I don't get why the goverment wants to spend billions developing this when terrorists can bypass it really easily, surely the government know this? So why are they doing it? monitoring normal civilians?

Mark Williams, Cambridge, UK

Thank God someone is swimming against the tide to try to save us from the creatures of the deep! Only when the day comes that that people are represented by people who receive no reimbursement , will we have unbiased and fair governments. What has globalisation done for the poor ?

Len, Rye, England

Hitler only had paper records and look what happened to the Jews. Think about it.

Mr Barholemew, bury, uk

II'm a WW11 vteran and thought we fought for our freedom.We don't want a Big Brother State Jijm.

James Arthur Needs, Port Talbot, West Glamorgan

I think Hitler and Stalin would be jealous of the amount of inteference and control that this government will soon have here!

Mark Standish, Barnsley, UK

"If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever" George Orwell

Richard Stott, Beverley, U.K

Doesn’t anyone pay attention to what’s going on in this country?? The European Union (EU) directive on data retention, Directive 2006/24/EC came into effect in May 2006 and each member state had until a certain date to comply with the EU’s orders. You can email your concerns to commsdata@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk but you better make it quick because you only have until the 31st October to do so. Notice how the government didn’t release that address in their press releases.

JJS, Somerset,

I'm interested in this topic; read all your comments. it's time to add mine.

The privacy issues are world-wide, my government started to monitor phone calls, emails and a lot of other monitorable things as well, as your government.

I believe it's a preparation for War.

name, town,

"Would Cecil Rhodes still say "to be born English is to have won the first prize in the lottery of life" ? It has a hollow ring today"

That nonsensical statement always had a hollow ring. By the way this government spying will affect the whole UK...not just the poor English.

R Head, Maidstone, Kent

Would Cecil Rhodes still say "to be born English is to have won the first prize in the lottery of life" ? It has a hollow ring today

Michael H. Caplan, London, England

"First they came…" by Pastor Martin Niemöller

Russell MacLeod Middleton, STIRLING, Scotland

More money should be sent on gun and knife crime.

Mahi, London,

I doubt this will make the United Kingdom any safer. It will make it harder to eavesdrop on terrorist because since they know that all communication will be monitored will speak in code and use encryption.

Philip Thrailkill, Nebraska, USA

Taxed to death. Recycling fines. Parking fines. Speeding cameras. Environmental taxes/fines. Bailing out the banks, whilst no one is held to account. Working f/t plus p/t job. Husband working 18hr days. Never taken benefits. Why do I live in England?

Linda, Fairburn, West Yorkshire

You're more than welcome to read and store all my telephone and email messages - good luck with them. Surely the fact that we KNOW all messages are being captured means any sensible crook or subversive will just use other means? Therefore, what is the point? Just to catch the stupid?

David, Sheffield, UK

Even Orwell would be shocked at what the government is doing! this is beyond a joke! OUT OUT OUT!!!!!!!!

Dan, Manchester,

The country is looking more like the old USSR than a Country with Freedom.
Briton the JOKE of the World.

Jon Nemo, Llamelli, UK

"If you've done nothing wrong then you've got nothing to hide."

Its that attitude that will keep everyone enslaved.

Shuan, London, UK

What the Hell has happened to Britain?!!!! When will all this nonsense end? Surely it is past time for the sane, rational and responsible citizens to say to that crackpot government: "ENOUGH!"

Garth Strong, Houston, USA

PUBLIC PROTESTS

This Saturday, 11 October, in London and many other cities.

www.freedom-not-fear.eu

"International Action Day 'Freedom not fear - Stop the surveillance mania!'"

This is an opportunity for us to stand up and be counted.

(I've only just found out about these protests!)

Simon, Brentwood, UK

The Chinese Government are taking notes.

Howard, Manchester,

Welcome to 1984.
This political dictatorship has just taken the next step towards eventual microchipping every human being.
The Police state has arrived, and I am sure I am not alone, when I say NO. NO. NO!
This is totally unacceptable, stop working for the corporate cartels, be human beings.

Jane, Brigg, England UK

Enough is enough.

Election. Now.

bill, bristol, UK

My objection is more the waste of money than any grandiose ideas that they might be interested in what I write.

Dave Jackson, Cambridge,

The government tell you how much you can keep out of your wages every payday!

They’ll tell you, you can’t leave the country without an ID card and biometric passport!

They monitor your every move and profile the entire population!

Is this Freedom?

Freedom will prevail, I promise you!!!

Andrew, Durham, England, UK

To Alan, London,

// If you've done nothing wrong then you've got nothing to hide.//

How many of us doing nothing wrong want some paranoid nutcase looking over our shoulder, hoping we'll transgress so they can say, 'Yippee! I got one!' ?

Ed Hall, Strathpine, Australia

I work for local government and it's already happening within the organisation, so this idea is just being extended out by the sound of it !
We live in what I call 'the double yellow line society' and it's strangling all of us.

Name withheld, Essex,

Interesting that "no formal decision" is good enough to blow a billion pounds on the project. What a farce.

Dan Leech, Harpenden, UK

Are they ever going to give us a real reason for this?

Hypothetically monitoring everything is not something small; it's far from adequate to tell us that "Oh, we're doing this to fight terrorism and crime". That seems to be the government's excuse for everything they do that might cause a stir.

Joshua, Basingstoke, UK

People from Australia and New Zealand have criticised the situation but should consider the following:

There are buildings around Australia, and at least one in New Zealand, housing computers that keep data on; quite possibly everone.

Unfortunely, this MB is too short for addresses.

Ed Hall, Strathpine, Australia

The amount of intelligence information already available is immense. Yet we have an innocent man shot 7 times in the head on the Tube in London. How many more people are going to be turned into police "hit" targets by the mistakes these "intelligence" officers will surely make?

Simon, Bath, Avon

The crazy thing is, they already have all the powers needed to fight terrorism & crime.

When have you ever heard a report that said, "we knew about a possible suspect but weren't aloud to check his/her communications".

Nonsense. When did good old 'Intelligence' stop being adequate?

Ian Allardyce, London, UK

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin ~1775

Anthony Gardner, Eindhoven,

This is really really scary- like big brother! I hope the US doesn't adopt similar policies...

Sam, Lowell, MA, USA

First they'll say they'll only keep the data for a few years -- then they'll decide to keep it forever.

They'll say they won't monitor the content -- then eventually they'll decide to keep all that too.

They'll only use the data to catch terrorists -- until they start spying on ordinary people.

Thomas, Bristol,

Do not just complain, DO something about it!

Judy, Utica,

We all need to install PGP encryption now. It costs almost nothing and it would take all of the computers in the world an estimated 149 trillion years to break for just one email. Where will their £12bn be then? Down the toilet with the rest of our taxes!

danny, Leeds , UK

If you've done nothing wrong then you've got nothing to hide.

alan , london,

Enough is enough! --> lpuk.org

Stan, Liverpool, UK

"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork"

That Orwell was a visionary.

Worrying news.

John Anderson, Swansea, Wales

Just forward every piece of your junk mail to the Home Office and soon enough something'll crash

Gordon Alexander, Frome, UK

All of you writing on here to critize this excellent government initiative to make us safer and more secure had better watch out; the government knows who you are. You can expect an early monring visit from a couple of gentlemen in long coats and with turned down hat brims real soon now.

Chris, Derby,

The end of Democracy and the begining of Totalitarism... Sad just like Star Wars....

Sjohn, Calgary, Canada

I may be wrong but by all the indications of what the government in Britain can do to the people, has already done and is planning to do to the people, I'd have to say the citizens are either lazy, stupid or brainwashed to accept this rubbish. What other excuses are there? Welcome to North Korea II.

jack, Vancouver, Canada

Data, data & more data. If you can't adopt a targeted approach to preventative crime then you're doomed to failure.

Richard Warwick, Croydon,

Being an American, I must offer my apologies to all of you in the UK. Your leaders have obviously gotten this idea from mine.

Billy Y.., Los Angeles, USA

Well we can fight back by using web proxy servers, or install TOR on your system. With TOR you can change your IP on the fly. For email use high level encryption software up to 4096 bit which you can get for free. Flood them with high level encrypted emails :)

kde, SOUTHEND ON SEA , england

One way out - switch to postal delivery or carrier pigeons. Certainly switch away from BT if you think politicians left, right and centre are corrupt. But don't forget they are humans and we all are. How many people wish the Government was more "green" but as soon as they raise green taxes whine?

Esther Phillips, Leatherhead,

All your postings are now on record!!!

Greg Richards, Leeds, England

Doesn't this so-called government have better and more useful things to do?

Sharon Clark, Lewes,

An appalling proposal from an appalling government. CCTV is trivial alongside this proposal.
Why stop there though? Why not compell us all to leave a spare house key with a neighbourhood warden who can have a look around our homes whenever he/she see us leave the house?

Derek Ross, Blackburn, UK

This is DESPICABLE!! CALL THIS A FREE COUNTRY?? This should be opposed vehemently, the Government cannot be trusted, anyone who lets the Government take their liberties does not deserve freedom.
The old USSR would be proud!!

Art, Glasgow, UK

Nothing to do with terrorism. Just who is with them and who is against.

tim waite, redditch, england

Anyone in favour of this "measure" should ask themselves two simple questions:

1. What percentage on one percent of all communications contain terrorist intent?
2. What percentage on one percent of the population have been victims of a terrorist even?

Hardly a proportionate measure then...

Paul Pinfield, Worksop,

As an American of English decent I look with horror at the erosion of privacy and civil rights in both our countries. Where is the outrage? This behaviour is reminiscient of the former USSR, not the UK. We're racing to the bottom.

Larry R. Fuller, Poulsbo, WA, USA

Totalitarian Britain still lectures Russia on 'dimaacracy'. Wake up UK!

John F., London, UK

To help stop this kind of thing, join the No2ID and the Database State campaign and register you support to stop this insidious action coming in to play. It's a non-partisan, single issue campaign, so anyone is welcome, as long as they are against having our civil liberties snatched away!

Tom Read, Manchester, UK

This has nothing to do with ant-terrorism and everything to do with totalitarianism.

New Labour is showing its true colours under Gordon Brown and we must fight against this and many other Labour government attacks on our basic freedom and way of life.

Peter, London,

I resigned from GCHQ's R&D dept back in 1997, coincidentally the year Labour came to power, when in-house technical staff were being replaced by bureaucrats and outsourcing. So I suspect the £1billion will be sucked up by the usual IT consultancies - in exchange for a system that doesn't work.

Chris, Cheltenham, UK

Of course "Officials claim live monitoring is necessary to fight terrorism and crime" when you have a government of political failures who have literally imported terrorists and criminals as part of an uncontrolled wave of immigration designed to prop up their vote. As for 'Wet Cameron', I despair..

Paul Williams, London, England

Britain is ripe pickings to become a totalitarian state. The media lost all sense of objectivity some time ago and fit the news around their own agendas. Nobody wants human rights. Everyone wants more police and tougher laws. Everyone is afraid of the person next to them, and so on and so forth.

John Edwards, London, Little England

All in the name of national security (sic!). The only threat to people in this country is this government. Whatever happened to freedom of speech, the right not to have a government interfere in my private life? This government will fall because it is so paranoid.

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

How many USBs, CDs and laptops will they have to lose to reveal all this information to the general public? Or are they going to save time and just post it all online immediately?

Rowan, Hereford,

I think NuLab forgot that it is important to slowly boil you all or else you are going to jump of the pot. It is now time for all you Brits to get out on the street and make your anger heard. If you don't put a stop to this, the rest of the 'democratic' world will contine to copy NuLabs fascism.

chris, Melbourne,

what is frightening about this is that the Tories are so quiet on the issue. Where they do take a stand, they are totally schizophrenic, e.g. dropping the ID card yet sign up to the full EU biometric passport - which uses the same technology but on a larger scale.

For Gods sake Cameron, wake up.

Clint, Liverpool,

This plan only expands what is already being done. If you live in the UK, send yourself two consecutive emails; the first including something like 'Kill Gordon Brown' and the second saying 'Must invite Gordon to dinner'. You will most likely find that the latter arrives at your in-box first.

Richard Crow , Warsaw, Poland

I thought they already did this
It truly shows that new technology is but a new form of tyranny. A slavery and a window into the souls of men undreamed of by all the tyrants of history.

keith bentham, Wigan, uk

Anyone would think the government is awash with money, although they won't spend it on the NHS, education, or cutting crime.

They spend their money on their subversive, pet projects, some of which criminalise law abiding citizens and give free rein to criminals.

N. Simon, London,

The conservatives have supported most of NuLabs Orwellian legislation and policies. It's the same in the US and Australia, both political sides just as bad as each other when it comes to taking power from the people and giving it to politicians. Two party politics are corrupt, incestuous duopolies.

chris, Melbourne,

We live on a beautiful island, with amazing nature all around us. It's a shame that the head cases have been put in charge. I'm gonna carry on writing emails slagging them off though, because if everybody does it what are they gonna do? The Government are driving my self promotion, not security.

Jay Davies, Plymouth, USUK

Surely this is a breach of Article 8 of the ECHR?

Bob, London,

this government has assembled all the requirements of a truely totalitarian state - all that is needed is someone to light the blue touch paper.

Crest, St Peter Port,

Thats an awfully lot of money to spend reading and storing viagra junk mail!

Mark, galsgow,

Sounds like the stasi state is fast gathering pace. What next, ID cards with blue tooth technology and a sensor on every CCTV camera? Freedom and democracy is fast dying in this country and the 'if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide' bridage need to wake up.

Mike Smith, NORWICH, UK

I thought they already did all this anyway

Tom Mann, Hove, UK

Those of us who have a professional interest in Data Protection and Freedom of Information issues have been aware of this project for a while.

To those that say “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about” we say, this needs to be balanced against the presumption of innocence, a fundamental principle of British justice.

The British justice system is built upon this principle and if this principle falls, the British justice system may start to rock!

Malcolm, Jersey, Channel Islands

I see this as no more than another sacred cow (like the dome) for the chosen few to profit from. When one old cow dries up another is created Iraq will be ending soon (costing too much) so the search for the next cow has started.

john ferguson, lewis, uk

So we've got Big Brother in No.10 and now Lord Voldemort in The Lords. Remember the words 'Land of Hope & Glory, mother of the free.' Whoever would have thought, even 15 years ago, that the most advanced Police State in the world would be the UK. Anyone who votes Labour must need their brain tested.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

:-D This from the same government who messed up the NHS, Child Support, ID & countless other databases. I have no fear of this at all, as there is no way this incompetent shower would ever get it to work. More worrying is the taxpayers money being thrown away, AGAIN!

Gary, London, UK

Dont they relise that 1984 was fiction not a guide?

Mitch, Wolverhampton, England

How will they read them all? It takes me the best part of the day just to get through my own.

Presumably they're planning to include a spam filter?

Tom, Paris, FRANCE

This outrage is Britain's Patriot Act except they don't even seem to be bringing it before Parliament. Where are the Tories? Will they promise to disasemble it? I doubt it. Once a govt gets control they are always loathe to give up power.

William, Guildford, UK

It's nice to know that the UK can spend billions and billions on war, administration , civil service costs ad infinitum at a time I thought government was falling apart! Perhaps printing money is the secret elixir of political life! My faith has never been that strong! It will all end in tears!

Brian Lewis, Manila, Philippines

As time goes by the idea that we are on the way to a police state seems less and less outlandish

Dan , Winchester, England

Bring back Stalin at least you had some freedom!! and I bet this e-mail is beinmg monitored. So who is monitoring the monitors. I bet the Government minsters are not being spied on.

chris, Bonnes , France

The Tories must pledge that, when they come to power in 18 months' time, this outrageous, headlong rush towards total physical and electronic surveilliance of the whole British people will not only be ended, but dismantled. Our country increasingly reminds me of East Germany.

Steven Davidson, Colchester, England

Repulsive. Is there any depth which government will not plumb?

John Louis Swaine, Colchester, United Kingdom

Welcome to HM Open Prison UK

mark hood, london, uk

get rid of this control freak government they are taking away our every human right they should be charged and thrown in the tower

de, london, england

This sounds rather like the GDR to me. Fortunately we don't have a wall around us (yet), so people could actually leave.

Esther, Newcastle,

People will fight this loss of freedom to there human rights Brown and co will not get away with it, if and there is an uprising the authorities do not have enough people to control it you could end up with civil war in this country

de, london, england

Tighten the boarders and you wont need a scheme like this

de, london, england

Ah, now it is clear what the government will do with the additional 1 million unemployed - checking our email and text messages and scouting for mine shafts to store the data.

C Jenkins, Hitchin,

just another piece of our orwellian society

glen, Auckland, New Zealand

Then they'll save it all onto a couple of memory sticks and lose it on a train somewhere.

Isn't there something better that this useless NuLab Govt can spend £12bn on? After all there is an econimic recession on the horizon or does Gorden still believe he ended boom and bust?

John Goode, Welwyn Garden City, UK

Then I suppose, at least some of it will go missing, if not all of it? So much for privacy!

margie , victoria, australia

Loathe to say anything because the Government will record the comments and I might be held to account at some future date. I didn't use to be paranoid!

Andrew, Scalloway,

Welcome to Nanny Britain, why not find a way to stop teenager's being knifed to death on our streets rather then spend billion's on 'spying'...

Tim, London, United Kingdom

We know how this will go. First they will say that it is to catch 'terrorists', then there will be 'mission creep' and before long all our online behaviour will be being scrutinized by council workers and sold to private companies.

Election please, before its too late!

Jack, York,

Labour's obsession with snooping on your private life continues unabated.......vote them out, you know it makes sense.

sedgwick, London, UK

This could be so easy to sabotage with mass spoof criminal / terrorist emails etc, sent by annoyed public or hackers just for the hell of it , Sifting all the data could solve the unemployment problem in the third world for the next 100 years, think it thru there are better ways to waste our money

am, letchworth,

Big Brother is watching you. Big Brother is always watching you.

Bruce L. Northwood, Washington, D.C., USA

But why? Terrorism is merely a convenient excuse. A more likely explanation is that the state itself is paranoid. It cannot fear a few terrorists, but it can fear the very population that it is there to protect. Does it foresee massive civil disquiet in the near future?

Dwight Vandryver, Scholar Green, UK

As a security expert I wonder if this is money well spent. The real criminals and people who need to hide information, will encrypt all their e-mails and VOIP calls. Setup fake identities with e-mail addresses,and then piggyback communications on various open Wifi, proxies or tojaned PC's available

richard, London, UK

I still don't hear the Tories saying they will repeal all these big brother laws, rules and regs?????

Peter, Stoke on Trent, England. UK

Why? No other 'free' country would consider this intrusive Police State to be normal. Britain has the Govt it deserves clearly. Good luck to you all as the iron curtainn descends on you.

Oliver Wrathall, Normanton, Australia

As an ex-pat looking in, it seems that the Labour government has done enormous damage to Britain, economically, culturally and socially. The people to blame are those who voted for them, or failed to vote against them. Apathy rules.

Kevin, Melbourne, Australia

What's a good date for public protest (peaceful of course) against this police state they're building? November 5th?

If we, the people, aren't going to publicly protest against such a blatant move to build a police state...

We must act before it's too late.

Simon, Brentwood, UK

Only in their dreams! And what strange dreams!!
Right thinking MP`s, of all poltical persuasions, would not allow it to pass.
If, perchance and heaven forbid, it should get through the House of Commons then the bulwark that is of the House of Lords would maul it beyond recognition.

Anthony Borge, South Ockendon, UK

As unpleasant and intrusive as this scheme may be, it is simply too massive and the government too incompetent for it to function on any meaningful level.

andrew williams, roquefort les pins, france

Life immitating art:

the art?

"1984"
and
"Brazil"

but of course, my mentioning these will be monitored and
assessed for sedition, on both sides of the Atlantic . . . and who exactly won WW II, the cold war, and 9/11/2001?

Time will tell!

Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker, Key West, Conch Republic

This is a top reason for us abandoning dear old Blighty earlier this year. Miss you dearly, but I'm not being watched as I write this, nor every time I go out. Good luck, you're going to need it.

Steve L, Katikati, New Zealand

I am amazed that the British public allow Government to impose these '1984' style measures. As their is so little resistance I conclude you have the Government you deserve

ICM, Jacksonville, USA

They'll be refusing to hold a General Election next ...... totalitarianism here we come.

Roger Lorton, Nongprue, Thailand

See, this is the path that any British government can go down without your consent for a few reasons. Because there's no written constitution, the precise words of which would be much more difficult to circumvent, they can just dream up this stuff and do it because they can...

John Rankin, Auburn, WA, USA

Shows how the people we entrust with the running of our countries, trust us. Its a case of the nuts running the nut house.

Udo, Melbourne, Australia

Get high grade encryption software (e.g. PGP) and start using it... spread it around to everyone you can persuade to use it. Yes, I know GCHQ can crack the codes, but only by deploying prohibitively expensive computing power. They couldn't monitor everyone.

John Rankin, Auburn, WA, USA

Ian Dickson, I am in the same position as you, except I baled out in 2003 thanks to the Iraq blunder. Otherwise, I agree with you completely. I have never seen a government so out of touch with reality.

Keith, Beaconsfield,

I despise this governments constant attempts at turning this country in to a sophisticated police state. A measure like this is incredibly sinister. This is one step away from permanent audio and visual surveillance of every individual in this country. I despair the lack of outrage

Will, Edinburgh, UK

if this goes ahead there goes the last vestiges of personal privacy & security goes too. They have become more Orwellian than George himself. When will these people realise that they do not have the inalienable right to do what they want on a whim & we do not belong to them. TIME TO GET THEM OUT!

zugerman, zurich, switzerland

one policy of institutionally corrupt nulabor is Control or Destroy
the brown stuff can't control nulabor, so he will destroy it

martin, sheffield, uk

I really really wish that I could have read this on the 1st of April; but this government treats every morning as April Fools day.

With our taxes wasted on new aircraft carriers, ID cards, son-of-Trident and endless foreign wars, it's no wonder the govt is so scared that it wants to spy on us all.

Claire, Bradford, West Yorkshire

Big Brother is watching you. Big Brother is always
watching you.

Bruce L. Northwood, Washington, D.C., USA

Sometimes, I really wonder if the tin foil hatters have actually got things right. A single banking system and a single police state government to rule us all.

Patrick Bateman, London,

Britain is on the verge of being a total suveillance society and no one seems in the least bit bothered. In London there is now a high definition facial recognition technology compatible CCTV camera on every street corner. It feels like living in a prison yard. Resist before it's too late

paul, london,

This just shows that NuLab have lost the plot completely and will thoroughly deserve the beating they'll get in the next General Election. I've voted Labour all my life but I will NEVER do so again so if the Tories want my vote (and countless others, no doubt) they know what they have to do.

Ian Dickson, Brighton, UK