THE proliferation of CCTV cameras across Britain over the past couple of decades has been amazing to behold.

There are now estimated to be more than 4.2 million cameras operating in the UK, one camera for every 14 people.

London is one of the most watched cities in the world, with more than 500,000 cameras in operation.

The attitude towards this often intrusive form of surveillance has shifted from one of suspicion, conjuring up images of George Orwell’s Big Brother in 1984, to please come and watch my every move.

The change has almost mirrored the increasing role of social media as a means of communication in the modern world.

At a populist level, the change in attitude is reflected in the emergence of the programme Big Brother — where people voluntarily put themselves into a house in order to be spied upon 24 hours a day. The prize, fame and the chance to never again be able to walk anonymously down a street.

The transformation in the attitude to surveillance society has been breathtaking to behold. I remember as a journalist back in the 1980s and ’90s covering stories in Belfast and Derry, concerning the monitoring towers that were built in the cities.

They loomed high over the city walls, operated by the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British army.

These dominating observation positions were no doubt intended to intimidate but they were sold as being there to protect the population from terrorism.

There were stories of individuals being told at checkpoints what they had been doing in their own houses the night before.

People in those days did not fall for the propaganda; instead, running long campaigns for the removal of the towers and surveillance devices.

The towers came down with the peace process. However, at that time, coming back to London, I wondered if something less intrusive was put up in the capital on the basis that it stops crime, would there be such opposition?

The foreboding proved correct, with people across the country now clamouring for CCTV to address crime. Of course whether such surveillance does cut crime is questionable, with plenty of evidence that it just shifts it from one area to another. Though I guess come the day when every square inch of the country and every movement by a human being is being recorded on a camera somewhere, this may not be the case.

Some years ago, I interviewed former chief constable of Devon and Cornwall John Alderson, who warned that the cry of dictators down the ages has been “give me your liberties and I will provide security.”

Today it would seem that people are more than ever prepared to trade their liberties for security, though they would do well to remember that once those precious won liberties are lost it will be very difficult to get them back.

Social media has played its part in promoting the sort of hysteria that sees rights more easily traded for security.

The various community forums on social media have the effect of hyping crime to a level quite beyond the reality of what is going on.

Something is reported, then quite often hysteria takes hold, fuelled usually by those furthest away from the initial incident being reported in the first place.

Terrorism is another arena where the process of cutting liberties on the altar of security can be seen at work. Going right back to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, it has been commonplace to use the terror threat as an excuse to bring in laws taking away basic liberties under anti-terror law.

Then over time these measures transfer into the ordinary criminal law. The right to silence was an early casualty, removed first under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, then downloaded to the criminal law under the Criminal Justice Act. Right to assembly and other freedoms have been chipped away at in similar ways.

These are all serious attacks on citizens’ civil liberties. Most recently, there has been the example of the Stansted 15 where anti-terror law has been brought in to prosecute the individuals concerned.

It must be time for a public debate on civil liberties in the modern world.

Are the threats today really that much more serious than in the past that they justify these incursions into people’s privacy and the removal of the most basic rights?

It is high time for a wake-up call on civil liberties and the present incursion upon them in the name of security. Once they are lost and the dictator has his jackboot on your throat there will be no coming back.

Follow Paul at www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.com.