I agree with PT Simpson (The Argus, February 8) that bugging is entirely justified when there is a well-founded suspicion that national security is under threat.

While The Freedom Association associates the compulsory imposition of ID cards on every citizen as an incursion into basic freedom, it emphasises the important need for covert surveillance in cases where defence of the realm is threatened and where the security services or police have grounds for suspicion, and have secured the necessary permissions. Every right-thinking citizen supports such acts in the interests of national security. What is scandalous is that some MPs, who make the laws, evidently believe they should be exempt from those laws.

Everyone in Britain now knows that eternal vigilance is the price of peace.

  • Keith Standring, Amherst Road Bexhill