• YOUR newspaper covered the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill earlier this year, however there is now more restrictive legislation making its way through parliament of which many are unaware.

Already in place is The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act (CHIS) which received royal assent in March this year.

CHIS allows innumerable agencies, for example, the police, armed forces any government department, to authorise undercover agents to infiltrate any group or organisation which they suspect not just of terrorist offences but of any activity thought to be against political or business interest.

This is happening now.

On the horizon is Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill which is designed to take away our fundamental right to protest.

Many peaceful protests have been infiltrated with agents designed to disrupt public life on a larger scale to give weight and substance calling for an end to protests of any kind.

There are other bills coming up for debate: The Online Safety Bill, which amounts to censorship of anyone with an opinion which is against government diktat. Like this letter for instance.

The Counter-State Threats Bill will destroy investigative journalism. Journalists who uncover corruption may well, in the future, if this bill is passed, be accused of spying.

The relinquishing of our individual rights and freedoms is deeply disturbing. Looking back through history this is how dictatorships are built.

Many, I feel, will approve of this kind of authoritarian control and accept without question until reality strikes home.

The country has been subjected to weaponised propaganda for a number of years, which makes it difficult to distinguish truth from reality.

I am an ordinary woman, not especially political; but ordinary people are little more than pawns being played out on a world stage. Time is short. We have to resist in order to maintain our autonomy.

JANE DEAN, NW3