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As a person who lives in the United States, “the land of the free”, I can say that in consideration of all of the CCTV cameras and other “big brother” measures in the UK, it is definitely a fledgling police state. The U.S. is rapidly becoming a police state, and the U.K. definitely has a lead on that unfortunate path.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIBMWoVfnMY

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Today’s government decision to stop retaining the DNA profile of innocent people is another victory for civil rights.

Good luck with your studies and career.

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you have made good points. I live in London too, and I reported from all G20 demonstrations. Violent episodes were very few, not as much as reported by mainstream media, and of course we can’t consider the UK a “police state”. Also, I don’t think the main occupations of police officers is stopping tourists to delete their holiday photos.
However, the only fact that this has happened, few times, but more than once, makes it “legal” and this is what I have noticed is worrying most people.
At the first march of the G20, the one at the City, tensions have started when the police formed cordons and stopped people from leaving the demo. Many, like myself, just wanted to leave, let alone the fact that except from a Costa, all shops and restaurants were closed and there were not services and facilities. This lasted for a couple of hours and increased the tension.
On top of that, the recent anti terror campaign has been considered by many exaggerated, as it pushes citizens to suspect anybody and report it to the police. A PR campaign, especially if it’s by the government or any institution, is launched after very careful considerations and not rushed off, so what we may think they are “exaggerations” or “mistakes”, maybe they were very well discussed.
The updates to the Counter Terrorism Act of 2001 were made in 2008 and effective from February 2009, so in September they were not put in practice yet, as wasn’t launched the ad campaign either.
I don’t think spreading fear among the population and increasing mutual suspicion are the way to face potential terrorist threats, as I don’t have any tools nor the training to understand if someone is doing something suspicious. I’m afraid that, if taken seriously, this anti terror campaign can have negative effects.
But these are just thoughts, and honestly I don’t think English civil society will allow to create a widespread atmosphere of panic.

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Despite working in one of the banks that some of those present were protesting against, I went for a walk and didn’t feel at all threatened or worried by the crowd, most of whom were singing, dancing and drawing pictures. The shame was that the TV reporters concentrated on the small violent outbreak and completely ignored the mostly excellent speeches and lectures.

With regards to the Metropolitan police, I suppose there are more around, but given their complete absence over the past few years many would consider it a good thing. During the protests a lot of police were shipped in from the surrounding counties and given their inexperience with dealing with large crowds and terrorism issues I’d suggest that’s where most of the misunderstandings arose, such as the unfortunate Austrian tourist.

Those police who assaulted members of the public are rightly being prosecuted as criminals, as are those who hid their identities or wrote on Facebook that they “Can’t wait to bash some long haired hippys up”. The current poster campaign is a bit over the top, but it’s hardly a police state.

As one of our comedians Andy Parsons said: ‘The only real change with all this terrorism is that gone are the days when you see an abandoned bag on the tube and think “I’m having that!”‘

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What happened to Ian Tomlinson was terrible, but there is only evidence of a push; writing that the death may have been from an unprovoked beating is like saying it may have been from swine flu.

And while many people think the government has gone too far there is no evidence that ‘everybody’ thinks so.

I think Hal gives a true account of the situation: unless you are at a big public gathering or very unlucky you are unlikely to see much evidence of a ‘police state’ when you visit London, England or the UK.

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