I was reading this story yesterday (Sadiq Khan bugging fiasco) and looking through some of the comments I thought that the number of comments saying things like

"Nothing to hide nothing to fear they keep telling us so what's the problem.Now bring on the ID card Labour.

Voterxx, Midlands"

or

"Why are we having all this discussion this is a terrorist suspect, not some shop lifter, this country is being to soft, we should be doing very thing we can to secure this county and not cowering down to these people.

get a life and lets start protecting this county

Steve, Bristol"

or even

"MP's suddenly 'crying wolf ' over the bugging incident - I am sure they would spin it if it was a member of the public being outraged at being bugged - putting it down to 'the war on terror' - the Police must have had a suspicion all was not well . Has the Right Honourable Member of Parliament got something to hide ?

John Collier"

I thought I'd do the most effective thing any citizen can do and leave my own unqualified viewpoint for the public, so that they can be persuaded by the power of my 500-character summation of the democratic process.

The mods didn't seem to agree though, so I thought I'd preserve it for posterity on my blog, since recording every aspect of our own lives seems to be the zeitgeist these days.

It's not word for word because until it was modded out I didn't really care enough to use Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V over it. But basically it was this:

1) Meetings between MPs and constituents are a vital part of the form of representative democracy and as such should be taken as confidential unless the constituent states otherwise. The relationship can be likened to that between a lawyer and client or doctor and patient; it needs to be one in which the constituent can speak to their representative, both in confidence and with confidence that the relationship is being respected.

2) In his diaries Tony Benn recounts that Wilson told him that he knew exactly who was being bugged and that no bugging occurred without the Home Secretary's knowledge and approval. The fact that Straw claims to have been unaware in this case suggests that the executive no longer has full control of its surveillance apparatus, which if true is a worrying development for everyone.

Well, except for this guy:

"Of course they should be bugged... 24/7.
These are the dim wits that legislated to turn the UK into a police state for the 'WAR ON TERROR'.
A taste of their own medicine is poetic justice.

Mike Talbot, Brisbane"

PS I should point out that some people on the Have Your Say are being reasonable. They are outnumbered, but they are there.