It's getting increasingly difficult for anyone to argue that the EU is a force for good in this country, its shutting down on BBC Jam notwithstanding. The CAP, the CFP, the bureaucracy, the corruption, the destruction of our common law tradition - these are just a few of the evils that have been inflicted on us by Brussels. There's no sign of it stopping either.

Proposals for a centralised database of fingerprints from across the Continent were revealed yesterday, fuelling fears on all sides of a Big Brother Europe.

The scheme for a computerised collection of personal details drawn from all 27 countries in the EU is the latest in a raft of anticrime measures in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Britain would be expected to contribute all the details held by police. These include fingerprints of suspects and people released without charge, as well as those convicted of crimes. The plan coincides with the Home Office preparing to expand the range of people fingerprinted to include those caught speeding or dropping litter.

I sit and stare at that last sentence, stupified by it.  We actually seem to be sleepwalking into something out of 1984. I grew up thinking that, as an Englishman, I had won the lottery of life.  I was, by and large, free. I had the rule of law, civil traditions, and policemen who would give you directions when you were lost. But what am I to tell my children now? That if they drop litter, they will be arrested and taken to a police station where their mouths will be swabbed and their DNA taken, to be retained indefinitely and passed around Europe? That these policemen are there to protect them? That they should expect to be monitored by CCTV everywhere they go.

What are they doing to my country?  What the bloody hell are they doing to my country?