The Government is funding new research aimed at getting permission to fly drones anywhere in Britain, in a move which could benefit defence companies BAE Systems, EADS and Thales but inflame civil liberty concerns.

By Amy Wilson
Published: 5:58PM GMT 21 Feb 2010

Eye in the sky: a Merseyside police officer tests a remote control helicopter Photo: John Giles/PA Wire

The use of unmanned aircraft for surveillance hit the headlines last week, after Merseyside Police had to ground their drone when it was discovered they were using it without a licence.

But a government-funded European group is pushing ahead with work aimed at showing that drones, known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), can safely be used in civil airspace. Drones cannot be flown outside regulated areas at present because they are controlled remotely and do not have the ability to "see".

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Drones are of interest to the military and the police as surveillance tools, and could be used by immigration authorities for patrolling Britain's coastline. But concerns have been raised because the UK is already one of the most "watched" countries in Europe, with the proliferation of CCTV cameras.

Less controversial uses for unmanned aircraft include sending back aerial images to search and rescue services, and to farmers surveying the progress of crops.

This desire by increasingly jumpy governments to spy on citizens illustrates only too clearly the erosion of trust between civil society and government.

Trust is fundamental to the ability of a society to function - trust between government and citizens, between citizens and the institutions of coercive authority such as the police, between citizens and media, between citizens and citizens.

Of course, trust is a two-way process. People have to give trust, but they also have to earn it by being trustworthy.

The gradual (and not so gradual) leaching of trust from society is part of what the Baha'i writings refer to as the disintegration of society that is taking place as we make the transition to a social order based on a deep-rooted understanding of human oneness and solidarity in a global civilisation.

This disintegration of what Baha'is refer to as 'the old world order' is taking place rapidly. The building of a new world order is slower, and will happen person by person, family by family, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

Faith communities and governments can nurture this building process, but they cannot enforce it.