The surveillance society is part of a trend that puts systems first and people second. This it tries to justify as necessary for our own protection. The threat of terrorism is real enough, but our fear of it is being exploited to undermine our civil liberties. Central to this process is MI5, with its growing power, its lack of public accountability, its harassing of individuals and use of smear tactics, together with its failures over the attacks on London which killed 52 people and threatened the lives of many more.
In Within the Secret State Peter Evans shows how individuals and institutions - the police, the armed forces, the judiciary, the prison service, the National Health Service and journalists - have all suffered from encroachment and interference by a centralising bureaucracy. This is a timely and important book that provides us with a stark contemporary warning - never to lower our guard when liberty is threatened.