Little spies

The Telegraph reports today that

"Children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to "snoop" on their neighbours and report petty offences such as littering, the Daily Telegraph can disclose."

Oddly this blog reported last October that:

"Hazel Blears has been reading up on the operating manuals of the Stasi and Securitate. Her new plan is for children to be enlisted to patrol the streets in the Governments latest attempt to combat anti-social behaviour. "An under-age army of "snoopers" aged 12 to 14 would be asked to report back on problems such as graffiti, vandalism, litter and dangerous buildings.... "The Junior Neighbourhood Wardens would not be paid for their time but must have a clear record with their schools and police."
"The Junior Wardens are given uniforms and books in which they record problems such as vandalism and graffiti. They can also report dangerous or poorly maintained buildings and paths to the Neighbourhood Wardens."

The Telegraph article continues:

"One in six councils contacted by the Telegraph said they had signed up teams of "environment volunteers" who are being encouraged to photograph or video neighbours guilty of dog fouling, littering or "bin crimes".

The "covert human intelligence sources", as some local authorities describe them, are also being asked to pass on the names of neighbours they believe to be responsible, or take down their number-plates.

Ealing Council in West London said: "There are hundreds of Junior Streetwatchers, aged 8-10 years old, who are trained to identify and report enviro-crime issues such as graffiti and fly-tipping."

Harlow Council in Essex said: "We currently have 25 Street Scene Champions who work with the council. They are all aged between 11 to 14. They are encouraged to report the aftermath of enviro-crimes such as vandalism to bus shelters, graffiti, abandoned vehicles, fly-tipping etc. They do this via telephone or email direct to the council."

...

Some are assigned James Bond-style code numbers, which they use instead of their real names when they ring a special informer's hotline.

This escalation in Britain's growing surveillance state follows an outcry about the way councils are using powers originally designed to combat terrorism and organised crime to spy on residents. In one case, a family was followed by council staff for almost three weeks after being wrongly accused of breaking rules on school catchment areas.

It also emerged last month that around 1,400 security guards, car park attendants and town hall staff have been given police-style powers including the right to issue on-the-spot fines for littering, cycling on the pavement and other offences."

This government seem to have taken George Orwell's "1984" and the surveillance techniques and informant schemes of the Third Reich and the Stasi as blueprints rather than warnings.

Last October I finished my piece thus:

"I am not sure but I think that this government is taking the piss now, they just don't care what anyone thinks of what they do they because they are going to rule for ever. This glorious government is forever, they are right because they are right, "Besides, the Party was in the right. It must be so: how could the immortal, collective brain be mistaken? By what external standard could you check its judgments?""

Some would say that as Ealing is run by a Conservative Council the problem is not due to our Labour government and there is a grain of truth to that. However the real problem is that the control freaks in central and local government have decided that they know what is best and that "they" are entitled to monitor and control "us" in the name of "security", "preventing climate change" or "environmental crimes".

In February I reported on an article in The Guardian that contained this thought

"This has got to stop. Britain's snooper state is getting completely out of hand. We are sleepwalking into a surveillance society, and we must wake up. When the Stasi started spying on me, as I moved around East Germany 30 years ago, I travelled on the assumption that I was coming from one of the freest countries in the world to one of the least free. I don't think I was wrong then, but I would certainly be wrong now. Today, the people of East Germany are much less spied upon than the people of Britain. The human rights group Privacy International rates Britain as an "endemic surveillance society", along with China and Russia, whereas Germany scores much better."