Well I would say its because there is a deep distrust of the fairly large population of Lumpenproletariat who whilst not particularly radicalized are deeply alienated from the rest of society and in particular any means of producing their own well being. This distrust is present in the general working class population who have been thoroughly convinced that they need this surveillance and state authoritarianism(which has increased over the decades) in order to protect what little scrap of wealth and security that hasn't been stolen from them by the Capitalists(who as elsewhere have convinced us all that its not them that's robbing us). I think that coupled with the general tendency in the UK towards an authoritarian and control freak government that seeks to occupy every aspect of an individuals life. Unlike in the US the UK does not have the same notions of independence and individualism that is seen as being the safety net of personal security. Personal security in the UK, we are told is provided by the state, since they disarmed the populace in the 1920's through fear of a workers revolt. Perhaps then this is the crux of the reason, in the UK we have a comparatively large population of poor people and unlike the US this population is not so indoctrinated into notions of individualism and that American dream bollocks. We have no dream, all we have is shit wages and the benefits system but we're not organised enough to achieve anything significant so people just commit small scale 'crime' in the hopes of getting something better. Truth is I'm not sure its all that different from elsewhere.
