Can you see where this is heading?

The Independent are reporting that "Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails... instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record."

Would anyone like to bet that somewhere within Whitehall or a Labour think tank they are not already considering the benefits of extending this scheme to the entire population. If they did try to extend this scheme to the whole population you just know the "if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear" brigade will up for supporting this scheme. Mind you, I doubt that there is any type of surveillance system that these people would not support. Maybe they could start with a programme to chip all children, after all what responsible caring parent wouldn't want to prevent their child being abducted by the bogeyman - "will nobody think of the children" will as usual be the call.