"If everyone could suddenly read everyone else's thoughts then very few people would survive the subsequent massacre" - Ken Livingston
Dozens of private and public spy-cameras surveil the streets, walls and windows of the area around George Orwell's apartment. Britain, the nation that "sleepwalked into a surveillance society," has created the landscape that Orwell envisioned, a world where your every step is recorded from every angle. And as Cardinal Richelieu said, "If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in them to hang him." Is there any among us whose movements aren't suspicious under the wrong circumstances?
On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.
Orwell's view of the tree-filled gardens outside the flat is under 24-hour surveillance from two cameras perched on traffic lights.
The flat's rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place.
In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell's favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub.
Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices.
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Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded.
A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.
Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.
The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.
By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.
Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into the central databank.
Senior police officers have described the surveillance network as possibly the biggest advance in the technology of crime detection and prevention since the introduction of DNA fingerprinting.
But others concerned about civil liberties will be worried that the movements of millions of law-abiding people will soon be routinely recorded and kept on a central computer database for years.
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Big Brother UK: Police now hold DNA 'fingerprints' of 4.5m Britons
More than one million people's genetic fingerprints have been added to the police DNA database in only ten months.
The "Big Brother" system, already the biggest in the world, now permanently stores the details of more than 4.5million individuals.
The rise is the equivalent of 150 new entries every hour. The database now covers one in 13 of the population - around 7.5 per cent.
The astonishing pace of growth has intensified concerns that the Government plans to create a universal genetic database by stealth, building a system which treats every citizen as a potential criminal from the day they are born.
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Although the database is a crime-fighting tool, producing around 3,000 matches a month with samples taken from crime scenes, around a third of all the DNA stored is taken from individuals who were not charged with any offence, and have no criminal record.
Critics raised particular concerns over the huge rise in the number of children on the database.
The DNA records, which are taken regardless of whether a youngster has committed a crime or not, are held on file until the day they die.
Critics believe the system is open to sinister forms of abuse, and that the dangers are growing as the database expands.
They claim the data has been used for genetic research without the consent of individuals involved, including controversial attempts to predict "ethnic appearance" from DNA profiles.
Campaigners also fear unscrupulous government agencies could use the database to track political protesters, find out who they are related to, or to refuse jobs or visas to anyone considered "undesirable".
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Giant database plan 'Orwellian'
Jacqui Smith said intercepting communications was 'vital'
Proposals for a central database of all mobile phone and internet traffic have been condemned as "Orwellian".
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the police and security services needed new powers to keep up with technology.
But the Lib Dems slammed the idea as "incompatible with a free country", while the Tories called on the government to justify its plans.
Details of the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone calls, numbers called, website visited and addresses e-mailed are already stored by telecoms companies for 12 months under agreement with the government.
The data can be accessed by the police and security services - but the government plans to take control of the process in order to comply with an EU directive.
Information will be kept for two years by law and may be held centrally on a searchable database.
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