“You will be a number, not a free man”


Columnist Henry Porter, writing in the print edition of the Evening Standard relates the scheme to the research he did for his new novel on the Stasi surveillance systems in the “democratic” (according to the official ideology) part of late 20th century Germany. He writes:

So, what is the point of a scheme that is likely to cost £18 billion over 10 years? Well, it means the government will know who you are, where you live and what you’re doing–exactly like the East Germans.