SILVERMINES, the natural resources turned electronics group, set a new standard in Orwellian Newspeak at its recent annual general meeting. In a move that would appear to have been intended to head off the inevitable question from shareholders about what exactly the company does, a rather slick corporate video was screened.

Presented in a Tomorrow's World format, the video contained a number of pithy lines. Not least of which was the proclamation: "Silvermines - the company that has seen the way ahead". However, by far the most memorable was the presenter's description of closed circuit television surveillance systems, one of Silvermines major product lines. Rather than being just another invasion of privacy, these devices are in fact "the sentinels of social order". The thought police would have been proud of them.