Big Brother.

Mr Smith has read a lot of articles over the last week questioning the decision of former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis to resign as an MP and fight a by-election to expose the dangers of the growth of the surveillance society and Big Brother government in Britain.

If anyone was in any doubt about the correctness of Mr Davis' decision then they should read the article in the Sunday Herald which exposes the increasing use of surveillance powers by local government to spy on allegedly miscreant citizens.

"SCOTTISH COUNCILS ARE USING SURVEILLANCE AND security powers intended to fight terrorism and organised crime in order to spy on ordinary members of the public suspected of petty offences such as breaching the smoking ban, playing music too loudly and dropping litter. Local authority chiefs have ordered staff to spy on unwitting members of the public some 3579 times since being granted the powers in 2002. Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), councils have the power to secretly film and bug people, use paid spies to inform on a suspect's activities, and even intercept communications data such as mobile and landline use and information about email traffic."

How can anyone defend this use of investigatory powers. Seems like using a series of sledgehammers to crack some nuts.