Anyone who makes that statement I feel has either not read 1984 by Eric Arthur Blair (the man you know as George Orwell) has understated the ideas or clearly not followed them properly.
Like many ideas, the image of Britain now living under authoritarian rule in a 'big brother' state is one of subjective experience. For example, someone who is a criminal, or is law-abiding and not been the victim of crime, are either trying to hide something, or feeling trapped, respectively
Now consider Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith was a hater of the idea that he was being spied on left, right and centre, and felt the government was being too oppressive. Then, one day, he had his car stolen. Distraught over the theft of the car and his precious work laptop with all his files on and the pictures of his daughter, he turned to the police (yes, the same police who he believed controlled the martial-law state he lived in). They surveyed the evidence, and found the thief and his car, and his car was promptly returned to him complete with all contents. "Oh my! Aren't these CCTV cameras wonderful!" he exclaimed, "I feel so much safer with them".
So safer and not oppressed anymore, Mr. Smith? Such diametrically opposed theories sound ludicrous to be thought of by the same person, yet, like many other examples one could make, experience (or lack of) forms opinion (as well as diatribe produced by many on Fleet Street).
Hate the nanny state? Whilst you must suffer the consequences, you can commit acts of burglary, theft and even murder – whereby in many cases you would only be caught after the act. Of course, I don’t want you to prove me right there, however if accepting that logic, one can see that if we truly were in a nanny state, you would be watched so closely that even your route to work in the morning would be recorded somewhere and considered suspicious (followed by a letter from your local council asking you to turn right at the end of your drive, not left like you did on Tuesday at 8.21am).
So, please, read 1984, and try to grasp the true ideas behind newspeak and double-talk, then if you can still come back to me with evidence that we definitely live in that world, I’m more than happy to entertain the idea.
Oh, and once read, you'll see that a few camera's in a house filled with air-heads at Elstree studios really doesn't deserve the title of Big Brother (as much as I adore Davina!)
Much Love
Lee x