I'm not sure there's much I can add to this piece. If anything it's more valid than it was when originally written, back in 2005.

Whether it's Bush in the US or Blair in the UK, Western governments seem to have finally perfected the art of Orwellian double-think. I'm no fan of the nastier regimes that undoubtedly exist in Asia, the Middle East, parts of Africa or South America. And, unlike certain do-gooders at Amnesty International or other civil rights groups, I certainly wouldn't pretend that our governments are anywhere near as bad as some of those.

But, and it's a big but, it is a self-evident truth that legislation is being enacted on both sides of the Atlantic that curtails our freedoms without offering any real advantages in the war against terrorism or even regular crime.

That Bush or Blair or any other Western leader can stand up and tell us that these measures are for our own good is testimony to the quality of leadership we currently have to endure. Either they honestly believe this nonsense (in which case they are desperately naive and gullible and have allowed themselves to be misled by who-knows-what backroom power-brokers) or they do actually have the sense to see through it (in which case, they are simply morally bankrupt).

Either way, it's a sad time for us all.