IMAGINE if you woke up tomorrow and found that you were unable to keep any of your thoughts to yourself. Imagine also that your response to any question was the absolute truth, as you knew it.

“I don’t tell any lies anyway,” you may protest. Oh, but you do – I promise.

What sort of a day would you have if you were unable to stop yourself from blurting out all those little thoughts and feelings which you keep to yourself or confide only to a loved one or close friend?

By the end of those colourful 24 hours, the landscape of your professional and social relationships would look very different indeed. And if you still think you don’t tell any lies, then just think a little harder.

Picture the scene – your colleague walks in to the office with a new hairstyle: “Ooh, you’ve got a new look.”

“Yes, I was sick of the same old style so I thought I would go for something a bit different.”

“I wouldn’t have bothered if I were you, it’s put ten years on you. Now can you go away, I’m busy.”

Later that same day your boss asks how you are. Normally such an exchange would involve some brief pleasantries or chit-chat before you both went back about your business.

But what if your response wasn’t a simple “fine thank you, and you?” What if you said: “Actually, I’m a bit rough today. I was out last night and went mad on the tequilas in a Mexican-themed bar. Don’t bother giving me too much to do because I’m probably going to sneak home at lunchtime then phone in sick.”

There are hundreds of examples every day.

“Does my bum look big in this?”

“Yes, dear, it looks even bigger, if that’s possible.”

We keep all these things to ourselves, because if we didn’t, our lives would eventually collapse. Jobs and friends would be lost, wives and husbands would be at war, and we could even maybe expect a box on the ears.

It’s called diplomacy – it’s a skill unique to (most) humans and it means that hundreds of times a day, we keep some of our thoughts to ourselves or tell a few little fibs so as not to hurt other’s feelings or to keep ourselves out of bother.

What would really make us furious is if someone had access to all our innermost thoughts and secrets then went around telling the whole world.

So why is it OK for a website to reveal all the innermost dealings of the American Government’s comings and goings?

As a journalist I am, of course, all for unearthing corruption and wrongdoing in politics in the public interest. This is why I feel uneasy about the continuing releases of American diplomatic wires by the WikiLeaks website. These releases have not produced another Watergate or MP expenses scandal – what they have done is expose the thoughts of some the most powerful countries in the world.

For example, we know now that some Americans think Prince Andrew is a “boorish, bungling freeloader”. Hilarious, I agree.

We also know now that China, for decades the only ally of North Korea, is thinking of washing its hands of its neighbour, secretly describing it as a “spoilt child”.

How has this knowledge, exposed by WikiLeaks, enriched any of our lives? Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are higher than ever, so what happens now if North Korea’s increasingly unhinged leadership feels so isolated and threatened it decides to launch a few nuclear missiles at the South? China may once have had the influence to stop such a reckless act, but what now?

America has been accused of censorship and attempting to block free speech, but those diplomatic leaks were revealed by a disgruntled employee and were never meant for public viewing .The kind of conversations exposed by WikiLeaks, between national governments, go on every day and help to keep the world running as smoothly as it can.

These short-sighted and reckless leaks may unfortunately serve only to make governments a little more guarded in future – a little more reluctant to share their thoughts or to work closely with their neighbours in case those confidential views or thoughts end up plastered across the web. How does that help anyone?