Bad people use communications Apps to plan acts of terrorism. The UK response? Call for a ban on the Apps.

But thousands of people are killed or injured on the roads every year. Does anyone seriously think that means cars should be banned?

David Cameron’s knee-jerk, populist call for Snapchat and Whatsapp to be banned was as daft as anything he’s ever said and that takes some going. The sad truth is that there is a price to be paid for living in a democracy and it’s acknowledging that people who intend harm may not be prevented from carrying out acts of atrocity.

Clamping down on innocent citizens is not the answer. In the 16th Century, Sir Thomas More wrote in his "Utopia" that, no matter how many thieves were hanged, theft could not be eliminated.

Our Security Services face a difficult, complex and no doubt dangerous task but there is a different sort of danger in giving them sweeping new powers which will only serve to limit the liberties of innocent civilians.

While there are plenty of arguments on both sides of this debate, there is one crucial piece of evidence which came to light this morning. It seems that Scottish Local Councils were given surveillance powers in order to help combat serious crime and terrorism. Instead, they have been using these powers to spy on, and set up sting operations to catch, people involved in much less serious crimes such as dog fouling and using fraudulent Blue Badges to park in disabled parking spaces.

OK, there are plenty of anti-social acts we’d all like to see stamped out and it’s certainly not pleasant being on the receiving end of such behaviour. While our Local Authorities should perhaps be applauded for using all the powers at their disposal to combat such anti-social behaviour, this is a demonstration of the simple fact that, if you give someone in authority extra power, they will use it, even if the purpose they put it to is not the one originally intended.

If that’s not a warning against giving the Government more powers to snoop on us, what is?