"The European Union proposed last year that greater sharing of this data be undertaken between countries, but the UK has proposed that the framework be greatly expanded to increase the powers of data collection and the number of purposes for which it can be used."

Of course... the little big brother would love to get the whole world into their own hands...

What next? a CCTV in every loo and newspeak...

...is deceased, it is no more, it is a dead treaty. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Eire.

Lisbon agreement is dead and should be buried.

EU is not hamstrung without Lisbon agreement, just look at how quickly you introduced pre-suspicion surveillance with that data retention directive. Blair snapped his fingers and a few months later it was done.

They've introduced declaration after decaration that has reduce individual rights to the lowest protection set in the EU (usually it's the UK's level). A race to the bottom.

And they act surprised that people would vote against more of the same?

What's the purpose of PNR data? Just because Bush wants it?

Surely some conflict of interest there. A huge NO to the Lisbon Treaty but an acknowledgment that the UK has one of the worst records in individual rights. I know where I want to live or preferably governed from, and its not the increasingly right wing nuts in the Lower House.

I know personally what I would like to see. EU restructured around:

Democracy, right of free movement, privacy, right to family life, presumption of innocence, right to fair treatment, no punishment without judicial process. Individual rights.

i.e.

#define rights(x) max(x,EuroCountry1, EuroCountry2,EuroCountry3...)

*not*

#define rights(x) min(x,EuroCountry1, EuroCountry2,EuroCountry3...)

*not*

#define rights(x) min(x,avg(EuroCountry1, EuroCountry2,EuroCountry3...))

*not*

#define rights(x) avg(x, EuroCountry1, EuroCountry2,EuroCountry3...) +- 30%

It seems to me, one country breaks one of these rules, then the EU harmonizes the rights of everyone else down to that level. Geez, imagine if Blair had been EU president, what a nightmare that would have been. No, better to stop it than continue down this path. Wait until we get a commission people believe in, not this lot.

Seems some commentators have spilt their coffee on their Daily Mails.

I used to think the EU was a bit hit and miss, but these days it seems to be our last line of defence against our increasingly totalitarian government.

It's interesting that with it's current veto our government always blames the EU for unpopular legislation it agreed to and takes the credit for anything else remotely popular.

Just thought I'd mention that the Placa George Orwell in Barcelona now has a surveillance camera overlooking it....................

Tory Blur and his successor Godrun Brown have both "allowed" practically every EU rule and regulation to be added to British Law - except the ones that would actually protect the English public from Government misdeeds.

I am not a supporter of the EU at all (I think the idea should be buried under a few hundred tons of enriched uranium in the middle of Brussels, together with the majority of Euro MPs and the unelected bureacrats who actually run the EU Stupor-state) but it ain't fair to blame everything our paranoid and suppressive ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES on the interfering busybodies in Brussels.

Personally, if the EU did tell Brown and his jackbooted thugs to frak off and forget this idea, they would actually go up in my opinion...

Also, do our Glorious Leaders actually have any ideas how much data they are talking about here?

Given their current record, I wouldn't trust them to secure a bank loan, let alone my personal data.

Come back Vee, we need you NOW!!

Mission creep anyone?

As usual this .gov is very good at passing laws for one purpose and using them for totally diferent reasons.

More and more people of my acquaintance are seriously considering the possibility that there will be a civil war within the EU superstate, with the Unionist EU forces pitted against Nationalist forces from the individual states that used to exist before the commission slight-of-handed the components of the EU Consti^H^H^HLisbon Treaty into place and took over.

It could be flashed off by any one of a huge number of triggers. Maybe the phasing out of the former national flags in favour of the ring of stars. Maybe the partition of the nations into transnational "Administrative Zones"; I'll be living in the Manche zone apparently, a mix of southern England, northern France and bits of other countries. It could be the switchover of military and Police command from the British Crown to the Commission. Although history would suggest that is actually more likely to be something really quite trivial, but that happens at exactly the wrong time. [If you think I'm spinning one, check the Constitution, it's all there]

The previous commentators seem to miss the point about the Commission vs. Parliament. President Broon is so far up the EU that there is actually no real difference at the moment between the two. Of the other two major parties, one is even more EU-phile than NeoLabour and the other slightly less. However, just because the current incumbents are drooling for the EU politician gravy train, doesn't mean that the institution itself is a dead loss. We can get back to being the place we once were by a very few simple acts:

1 - Switch to a proportional representation style vote for MPs

The system we have at present presupposes that there are but two strands of opinion. Nowadays there are an almost infinite number of opinions, which would be far better represented by having to actually negotiate to get new law through; something our current elected dictatorship doesn't encourage.

2 - Repeal the European Communities Act

.. and therefore revoke all of the subsequent treaties, including the re-badged EU Constitution, when they sign us up to it despite massive popular opposition. We can then sort through the UK law that came off the back of the formerly mandatory EU Directives and pick out the stuff that is good for our country and dump the stuff that isn't. There is no way on this planet that the rest of the EU are suddenly going to stop trading with us and vice versa, so we can pioneer inter-state trade treaties that mirror and simplify the good parts of the former EU trading laws and leave the rubbish bits behind. We can also then choose which of our European friends deserve a financial helping hand, rather than being required to pay out obscene sums of money through a very corrupt and leaky middleman that would be better served going to rebuild out own national infrastructure.

As a closing note, if you think I'm being paranoid, just sit back and read about the history of Europe for a bit. Vicious and devastating wars have been kicked off for way less than we are already putting up with and chronologically we are WAY overdue. Y'all better start kicking up a fuss before it's too late.