Muttering down with big brother in his sleep, and turned him in to the thought police...

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Classic 19th Century model:

Detective begins with a crime scene and looks for clues pointing to suspects who may have committed the crime.

New 21st Century model:

Detective begins with a person and looks for clues pointing to crimes which the suspect may go on to commit.

...but what was with all the italics? I was trying to find a hidden message by the end of the article.

I haven't seen the movie, but I understand there was a problem with something like this. The solution wasn't good. Never is.

Fortunately (maybe this is good) it will never (out on a limb here) be done in the USA. Maybe we have done something right (strange, isn't it).

You are assuming that such a system doesn't already exist in the US. Lets see, you have Echelon for a start, then the FBI, CIA, NSA, DHS, then of course there is all the fuss over illegal wire taps reported for the last year in the international press; to name just a few of the surveilance agencies and systems in place in the US.

Are you saying you honestly believe that there is no national system currently being used? I would be very very very suprised if there wasn't. Just because you don't know about it, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I don't know about the US, but I'll be willing to wager that any such system implemented in the UK will promptly cease to function the moment it is taken out of its sandbox and tested with real data.