LIKE Damian Green MP, I’m having my own battle over the DNA database.

Hundreds of thousands of people not charged or convicted of any crime have nevertheless had their DNA taken by the police and stored, despite a European court ruling that “innocent” people’s DNA shouldn’t be held.

So here’s my problem: how do I persuade the police to store my DNA? Why should I, an “innocent” person, be denied the right to have my fingerprint and other personal data included in the national database with everyone else’s, “innocent” and guilty alike?

I feel like my civil liberties are being compromised the longer this outrage continues.

Very droll, but I'll tell him why he should be concerned. Ronald Reagan (not for the first time) put it best when he said that the most dangerous words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I am here to help". We should always question any expansion of the power of the state. Just because the forces of government say something is necessary, we shouldn't do what Tom invariably does and say, OK, you've taken away another one of my hard won freedoms, would you like this one over here too?". We should fight for our privacy, protect our civil liberties and resist any attempt to store further information on unwanted and hugely expensive government databases.

One of the reasons I always wanted to go into politics was to try to protect people from big government. It looks like that fight is far from won. Labour used to revel in its reputation as the party of civil liberties. That reputation has been shot to bits. And Tom Harris delights in pulling the trigger.