"Managing" Data and Dissent: Where Big Brother Meets Market Fundamentalism
As the securitization of daily life increase at near exponential rates (all to keep us "safe," mind you) the dark contours of an American police state, like a pilot's last glimpse of an icy peak before a plane crash, wobbles into view.

In the main, such programs include, but are by no means limited to the following: electronic surveillance (call records, internet usage, social media); covert hacking by state operatives; GPS tracking; CCTV cameras linked-in to state databases; "smart" cards; RFID chipped commodities and the spooky "internet of things;" biometrics, and yes, the Pentagon has just stood up a Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA); data-mining; watch listing; on and on it goes.

Even the dead can't escape the nanny state
The state's restrictions on our behaviour are getting beyond a joke, says Nigel Farndale

Conservatives double lead over Labour in new poll
David Cameron has won a boost at the end of the first week of the General Election campaign as a new opinion poll shows the Conservatives' lead over Labour doubling to eight points over the last five days.

UN process under fire at climate change talks
Climate change negotiations remain in the mire after the first meeting since Copenhagen showed rich and poor countries are still not ready to trust each other.

The Names often Change, but the Game Remains the Same
Correlating concepts is one literary tool which unifies stories and ignites sparks in readers. Recognition of correlations in written words and in real life instigates thoughts on metaphors in stories and truths in reality. I think the stunning power of correlations, whether in story or reality, comes from the innate human desire to find truth and such universality might arm one with knowledge to better find it.

Reason Number One to get rid of Labour: Immigration
Readers may remember that when Phil Woolas took over as Immigration Minister in 2008 he gave a distinctly barn-storming interview. He sounded the real deal – someone about to get tough after the ruinous era of mass migration into the UK.

“It’s been too easy to get into this country in the past and it’s going to get harder,” he promised. He even talked quotas.

His comments were so sensible that they were immediately criticised by Keith Vaz.

So if you wanted an example of why people don’t believe politicians you need go no further than comparing Mr Woolas’s early boast of what he would do with his lamentable attempt on The Daily Politics show to defend what he has actually done.

Bribery Act 2010 - exemptions for MI6, MI5, Active Service Military ok, but why is GCHQ exempt, no public scrutiny of Government sanctioned bribery

Britain to top the inflation league
A leading investment bank has warned that the UK will lead the western world in inflation this year, as VAT hikes and rising oil prices impact on the High Street.

The prediction came as the pound hit the highest level against the dollar for six weeks following a marked pickup in the prices of goods leaving British factories.

Four crises to overcome to save the economy
The UK needs to reform itself or it risks following Japan into a lost decade
The official election campaign is now five days old, and you could be forgiven for thinking that the only issue is how and when to tame public borrowing. It warrants its place on the policy agenda, with Government borrowing at more than 11pc of GDP and public debt converging on 90pc of GDP.

For most of us, that translates better as the Government is borrowing just under £1 of every £4 it spends, having doubled its outstanding debt since 2007 to £30,300 per person in the working-age population.

But the state of public finance is only part of a deep-seated structural malaise into which the British economy has fallen as a result of the financial crisis