Now cops want to record you on the street

They could easily be linked to the network of CCTV cameras which already snap subjects in Blighty over 300 times a day.

According to the report, the mikes will pick up "aggressive tones" using 12 factors including sound level, pitch and the speed of the speech.

The whole thing sounds like it might result in British people resorting to sarcasm and irony rather than to expressing anger and other feelings honestly and frankly.

And so we in Blighty will be forced into two-faced passive-aggressive behaviour and hypocrisy. Which is what Johnny Foreigner has always accused the Brits of, anyway. µ