Police state grows apace.

The Guardian has a reply to a FOI request which foretells a bleak future for the UK population. If you thought that the surveillance society couldn't get much worse, think again. We are now to have unmanned drones spying on us from the sky. They should be in place, ready to 'protect' us, in time for the 2012 Olympics. Initially the scheme was intended for use over the English Channel to monitor shipping and detect immigrants crossing from France. However, the documents suggest the maritime focus was, at least in part, a public relations strategy designed to minimise civil liberty concerns.

Our police are also planning to use the drones for the routine monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers. They say that this will 'revolutionise policing'. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is ready for test flights later this year.

In addition, we are informed that: officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies.