Two Surveillance Britain stories

The Mail report what happened when a rail passenger dared to take photos on an overcrowded train:

'A rail passenger who took photographs of an overcrowded train carriage was threatened with arrest under anti-terror laws.

Nigel Roberts, 41, was so appalled by the cramped conditions commuters have to endure he warned a ticket inspector that dangerous overcrowding could cost lives.

But when the IT worker showed his mobile phone photos of luggage-crammed aisles and exits he was told it is 'illegal' to take such pictures and threatened with prosecution.

The inspector then demanded Mr Roberts' personal details.'

Big Brother Watch reports on the extent of CCTV Smart Cars in Britain:

'54 CCTV Smart Cars operated in 31 local councils in Britain, caught and fined at least 188,000 motorists between April 2009 and March 2010.'

The thirty eighth weekly "NO shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award goes to the Cambridge University academic David Farrington for the Campbell Collaboration study group, funded by the Home Office, which has concluded that as The daily Mail puts it:

"The millions of CCTV cameras on Britain's streets have done virtually nothing to cut crime... Cameras in town centres, housing estates and on public transport 'did not have a significant effect'"

"No shit, Sherlock"

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.

CCTV Britain

The Telegraph report:

"when the Fletcher family went for a pre-Christmas treat at the Manor Restaurant in Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, they were disappointed with their meal.

Marilyn Fletcher, 57, sent a letter complaining of slow service and poor food, in a lunch which cost £127 for four.

But she was left astonished by the restaurant's response. Simon Offen, the catering manager, emailed her to say he disputed her version of events after he had "watched and listened with interest to the video recording of her table".

Mrs Fletcher was horrified that the meal had been recorded on CCTV cameras, and said her family found it "extremely disturbing" and felt "outrage at the invasion of our privacy".

In a letter to the National Trust's director-general, Dame Fiona Reynolds, she asked: "Does the National Trust condone recording, watching and listening to private conversations at customers' tables in National Trust restaurants?"

Mrs Fletcher, from Great Missenden, near High Wycombe, has demanded to see and listen to the recording, and has questioned the legality of Mr Offen's actions.

"There was no legitimate or lawful reason why Mr Offen should have been recording conversations at our table and then listening to them 'with interest'," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner said that CCTV cameras should only be used if there was a "genuine justification" for them, usually to prevent or detect crime. Recording conversations in a restaurant would be "deeply intrusive", she said."

What a lovely country the UK has become if our meals are now recorded as well as our car journeys, train journeys, walks in London etc. etc. etc.

Precognition becomes a reality

Life in 21st Century Britain just got a little more scary, The Mail reports that:

"CCTV cameras which can 'predict' if a crime is about to take place are being introduced on Britain's streets.

The cameras can alert operators to suspicious behaviour, such as loitering and unusually slow walking. Anyone spotted could then have to explain their behaviour to a police officer.

The move has been compared to the Tom Cruise science-fiction film Minority Report, in which people are arrested before they commit planned offences."

Could this Labour government devise any more surveillance measures to keep us under control? If someone devised an implant that would record everything a person saw and said, does anyone believe that this Labour government wouldn't try and introduce it as a means of preventing terrorism?

Civil Liberties take another step backwards

It would appear from this Daily Mail article that the Police "want to take DNA samples, fingerprints and even imprints of footwear for all offences" this will include from speeding motorists, motorists stopped for not wearing a seatbelt, someone dropping an apple core and so on and so on. This is another example of Big Brother Britain, this Government will not be happy until we are all on their National Identity Register along with a DNA sample and preferably micro-chipped as well. The Government must be able to track our movements at all times via the microchip and watch us at all times via CCTV; maybe a two way TV in each room would be an idea, now what made me think of that?

The rise of the surveillance society

I was flicking channels yesterday and happened across an old episode of "Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld". From the look of his clothing I would say it was filmed in the late 1980's however the programme was in fact made in 1995; well you don't watch Jezza for fashion tips.

The programme was set in Monte Carlo and included a scene where Jezza described the city as being three miles long by 300 yards wide and had a huge number of video cameras that kept it safe; all 160 of them. He then demonstrated how safe the city was by leaving a F500 note on the dashboard of his open top TVR when he went off to lunch. Under the gaze of one of the security cameras the car and it's large value note stayed untouched. I remember when I watched this programme back in the 1990's I thought that maybe if we had security cameras in London we would also have much less crime.

I mused about this last night as I drove into London, past more than 160 cameras of various types. I didn't feel especially safe as the main thing the cameras were concentrating on was not preventing violent crime but checking for anyone exceeding the speed limit by more than 1 mph.