the fourth place

I admire this description for sticking mostly to the facts, with only a little colour and some opening personification:

When you come out of your house first thing, I'm watching. And I'm with you every step of the way — to the shops, to work, wherever you go. I'm there on the bus just behind you. I recognise your car, too. I know where you bought it. And I've a list with every trip you take and which way you went. I take notes, lots of notes.

Sounds like a description of a stalker, but if the Government had a single mind this might just be how it thought. It would not be a threat, but a promise and a well intentioned promise at that. A promise to keep you safe without really asking permission (Labour's share of the total possible electorate was 22%. calculations)and without any regard to how you might feel about the process.

Guy has done an excellent job of rounding up this years news on privacy and offering a little historical perspective about how we got here. I'm not convinced by his implication that everyone saw the images of Jamie Bulger and thought "that's horrible, lets put a camera in my shop just in case another kidnapped child walks by". I think other more frequent horrors such as drunks, bad drivers and shop-lifters would have been the justification for each new CCTV camera at the time, but it is an interesting possible explanation for public compliance.