The growth of the database state in recent years is a major concern of civil libertarians: each new social problem is greeted with calls for greater surveillance and restriction of the private sphere. Guy Herbert spoke about the origins and underlying ideology behind this worldview, tracing its roots far deeper than the whim of headline-seeking New Labour ministers.

General Secretary of NO2ID, a grassroots campaign against ID cards, Guy Herbert is a prominent figure in the fight for civil liberties in the wake of the progressive growth of the surveillance state in recent years. Most active in opposing the Identity Card project and the National Identity Register, which sits behind it and will collate the intimate personal details of all citizens, NO2ID also oppose the government's efforts to centralise medical records and fingerprint young children. Guy is an occasional contributor to The Guardian and libertarian blog Samizdata, and is professionally a business affairs consultant. He stood for parliament in 1992 for the Green Party, though he now considers himself a 'Tory anarchist.'

Recorded at the Manor Road Building, University of Oxford, on 16th October 2009