The dumb accomplices to petty authoritarianism

It is probably the great dividing line of modern Britain: between those who regard the headlong rush into the surveillance society as a massive and almost unstoppable threat; and those who really couldn't give a damn. The second lot includes most of the present Government and a whole raft of formerly leftish commentators who don't seem to have a democratic gene in their body.

Where the British people decide to turn at this momentous time will decide what sort of society we become. Will it be a world of endless CCTV cameras, spying, bugging, ID cards, petty authoritarianism and the destruction of fundamental liberties? Or a world where the all-encompassing state is rolled back, the people retain their treasured freedoms, and the vast paraphernalia of extra-parliamentary authority is first made accountable and then largely dismantled? As they say, you decide.

All allies are welcome in this particular

struggle, so several cheers for the arrival of a former barrister, Amber Marks. In this largely entertaining and only slightly irritating book, Ms Marks chronicles her voyage into the smelly world of animals and their role in the chilling world of technological hyper-security. (It would be a surprise if Ms Marks hadn't turned into a radical - her father is the jailbird and outlaw turned National Treasure, Howard Marks).

She is an engaging sort of guide, which is just as well because she is on every page of this book: we follow her getting pissed, flirting, addressing a variety of security conferences from Switzerland to the Scottish Highlands. We attend a weapons symposium in Germany and are shown round the Stasi Museum in Berlin. We share late nights, hangovers, and we chat. Gosh, she and her friends can talk for Britain, and I'm still not sure if it was recorded, or if she's just got an astounding memory.

Whatever: the more we get spooked about what the scary guys in suits are up to, the better. It leaves us better placed to try to stop it. Let's hope we are not too late.