Spying on us everywhere (part 1)

I see that we can at least be told where Oxford's ANPR cameras are. There cameras are initially there to provide the data to calculate local journey times however I wonder how long it will be before mission-creep means that the same data will be used to issue speeding tickets.

Watching us all the time

Did you know this was going to happen? Oh come on it was obvious, this Labour government and its state police force just want to know everything about what we are doing, where we are going and who we are talking to - and if we complain "what have we got to hide?".

The latest story concerns this:

"A national network of cameras and computers automatically logging car number plates will be in place within months, the BBC has learned.

Thousands of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras are already operating on Britain's roads.

Police forces across England, Wales and Scotland will soon be able to share the information on one central computer.

Officers say it is a useful tool in fighting crime, but critics say the network is secretive and unregulated. "

But this is just to be used against criminals, right? Wrong!

"John Catt found himself on the wrong side of the ANPR system. He regularly attends anti-war demonstrations outside a factory in Brighton, his home town.

It was at one of these protests that Sussex police put a "marker" on his car. That meant he was added to a "hotlist".

This is a system meant for criminals but John Catt has not been convicted of anything and on a trip to London, the pensioner found himself pulled over by an anti-terror unit.

"I was threatened under the Terrorist Act. I had to answer every question they put to me, and if there were any questions I would refuse to answer, I would be arrested. I thought to myself, what kind of world are we living in?"

Sussex police would not talk about the case. "

Database Britain

This Labour government do seem to have a grasp of literary history, the introduction of their latest surveillance database comes on the 6th of April 2009. The novel 1984, which this Labour government seems to have taken as an instruction manual rather than a warning, starts on 4 April 1984: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen".


The end of the era of internet freedom came this morning as the EU and this Labour government's plan to monitor their citizens' every move takes another step closer to completion. From this morning all internet activity by every internet connection must be stored for one year by the ISP, this includes email traffic, visits to web sites and telephone calls made over the internet. Of course this information will be accessible by police and the security services so as to combat crime and terrorism. Of course in reality the information will be accessed by many public bodies and quangos, including local councils, who will thus be able investigate any number of minor misdemeanours or just look for evidence to embarrass difficult or undesirable persons.

The UK's Labour government who seem to have an insatiable desire to monitor and control every aspect of their citizens' lives was the prime mover for this EU-wide system of recording and it is to the UK's Home Office that we must turn for the justifications:

"It is the Government's priority to protect public safety and national security. That is why we are completing the implementation of this directive, which will bring the UK in line with our European counterparts."

"Without communications data, resolving crimes such as the Rhys Jones murder would be very difficult if not impossible."

And then the excuse that has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese:

"Access to communications data is governed by Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act which ensures that effective safeguards are in place and that the data can only be accessed when it is necessary and proportionate to do so," he said. "

We all know how well the RIPA safeguards have worked to date, just look through the cases that I and other bloggers have reported and see councils using the Act to fight littering and to check whether parents are abusing school catchment area rules. Now councils and the government will have access to almost unthinkable levels of personal data without any real safeguards.


This database is not an isolated example of Labour implemented state surveillance, here's a few examples that I could think of, please feel free to add your own in the comments:
1. DNA Database - 3 million entries so far of anyone who is arrested, even if never charged let alone found guilty. The data stays on the database forever as it is virtually impossible to have it removed.

2. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems record the movements of millions of vehicles every day and are in the process of being linked to a central database to record every movement you make in your vehicle.

3. Oyster Cards - If you register your Oyster Card, currently still optional, then every journey you take is recorded and stored.

4. Spy in the sky - The introduction of black box type equipment in every car is set for 2013, so every vehicle journey would be monitored foot by foot for speed limit infractions or in the future unauthorised journeys by carbon criminals

5. Every journey outside of the UK now has to be logged in advance along with personal data. How long before this is used to restrict foreign travel by "carbon criminals" or persons suspected of taking currency out of the Peoples State of the EU?

6. ID cards - "papers please"

7. NHS database - It is rumoured that MI5 already have access to the patients records stored on this database; who else might have access soon?

8. Galileo European tracking - the EU's rival to GPS is an unnecessary and expensive system unless the rumours that the Galileo chip will be placed in every new mobile are true. In which case if you own a mobile telephone your every movement will be tracked and recorded, and if you don't own a mobile telephone that will look suspicious.


Welcome to the sort of State surveillance that the Stasi could only have dreamt of. From today the State and its subsidiary vectors of control can monitor every web site you visit, every telephone call you make over the internet and every email you send or receive.

What of the future? I blogged some time ago about the state information televisions in public places ahead of the 2012 Olympics that are likely to become permanent fixtures. How long before CCTV cameras are plentiful enough that they are monitoring every street, to fight crime and terrorism, one every 100 metres... 50 metres... one per house...

The Telegraph reports that:

"Ministers are drawing up plans to cut the speed limit on single-carriageway roads in the countryside from 60mph to 50mph. "

This Labour government and its fellow travellers in the enviromentalist sector as well as the health and safety Nazis have done their best to make driving as unpleasant, uncomfortable and expensive as possible. Drivers are corralled into less and less of the road, monitored by CCTV, GATOSs, average speed cameras, speed traps, ANPRS etc. etc. etc. and fined for the smallest infractions of the law with no defence allowed.

Labour and road-pricing

I have blogged previously about this Labour government's desire to bring in road-pricing (most recently here and here), today I read that:

"Ministers are pressing ahead with a £10million trial of 'spy-in-the-sky' road-pricing technology despite widespread public opposition.

Test runs will start soon in seven locations for the scheme which could result in charges of up to £1.30 a mile on the most congested roads.

Volunteer drivers will have units fitted to their cars, which will be tracked by satellite and will automatically deduct payments from a test account.

The trials are proceeding despite previous statements from the Government suggesting that it had abandoned the idea of national road pricing."

This Labour government saying one thing and doing another, how unusual.


And of course the usual Labour government dissembling over costs is in evidence again:

"New figures from the Government show that the bill of £10million covers only part of the tests, with further costs to follow. "

Another Labour project that is heavy on IT and so expensive, that will cost many times more than is budgeted for, will add huge administrative costs and will raise less in revenue than is planned. Time after time this Labour government show themselves to be incompetent and unable to implement such ideas. Again and again this Labour government say they are "in listening mode" or are ready to listen to the public and when the public give an unwelcome verdict, the Labour government ignore them. It's the same story whether the subject is road-pricing, the EU or many other maters; democracy?

More State control

What a surprise, the Commission for Integrated Transport and the Motorists' Forum, which both advise the government, are calling on ministers to promote a wide introduction of a system whereby speed-limiting devices should be fitted to cars on a voluntary basis to help save lives and cut carbon emissions. The device would automatically slow a car down to within the limit for the road on which it is being driven.

Don't let yourselves be fooled, this is not about cutting road accidents, injuries in road accidents or even the Holy Grail of reducing climate change, this is about controlling the public.

There is a point to having so many laws

Yahoo report in shocked terms that

"Britons are forbidden from disturbing packs of eggs and from selling game killed on a Sunday, it was revealed Thursday by an opposition MP who condemned ministers for introducing ridiculous laws."

Is it possible that so many laws are introduced so that the Labour government have more chances to arrest and convict members of the public that they would rather not have free to oppose them. For example is it beyond the realms of possibility that ANPR systems be used to target certain drivers by monitoring their cars at all times and punishing every minor infraction with a three point penalty?

A logical flaw?

The Metro (free London newspaper) had a small piece about Harrow council using number plate recognition technology to identify fly-tippers. The logical flaw came in this sentence:

"Cameras will log the registrations of vehicles that make more than two visits a day to the site..."

I doubt the above is true. First the cameras log nothing, the logging will be done by the equipment that the cameras are attached to. Second, to track what vehicles have visited the site more than twice in a day, surely they will have to log all of the vehicles that visit the site.

Surveillance Society

Words fail me having read this from Spy Blog. It appears that London drivers are being monitored 24/7 by the ANPR and LEZ cameras that I have blogged about before. Read the whole article and then wonder at how we became this spied upon society, oh yes a quarter of the adult population voted Labour.

Identified Cameras

I have written previously about the strange cameras on gantries that are appearing on London's A roads. It would appear from the comments posted and some further research that these cameras are Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. What is not certain is for what purpose or purposes they are being erected, is it to enforce Ken Livingstone's Low Emission Zone which commences in February 2008, is it to enforce a road pricing scheme? I would just like to know.

UPDATE
The Institute of Advanced Motorists say they are to enforce the LEZ. I may be cynical but I think they could be used in the future for a Road Pricing scheme.

Unidentified cameras (part 2)

Further to my previous post, I see that the metalwork for what appears to be another set of these cameras has appeared on the A406 (North Circular Road) eastbound just before Henly's Corner. I have been having a think about what these cameras are for and I believe they are part of the proposed road charging scheme, failing that they are a really nasty set of average speed cameras.

As a reminder here are the details I posted previously.
During the last couple of weeks some new cameras have started appearing on London's roads. Each set is a gantry with five cameras pointing towards the oncoming traffic. So far I have seen three sites, the first is on the North Circular Road heading west at Neasden, it is this set that I have the most photos of and they appear at the end of this entry. The second set have appeared on the North Circular Road heading east just before McDonalds, just before the IKEA in Neasden and I have one long shot of these cameras, I am convinced this second set has gone up this week. I also noticed a third set on the A40 westbound between the White City overpass and Savoy Circus. What are these cameras, there are five on each gantry for a three lane road. They don't look like average speed cameras. Are they perhaps the first signs of the system needed for road charging? Maybe they are just more surveillance cameras. It would be nice if we, the taxpaying public were told what was being put up to - in one way or another - monitor us.