Comments on: The surveillance society

By: Adrian Peirson

Adrian Peirson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:11:28 +0000

From Freedom to Fascism

It appears to me that the EU / Govt is deliberately stirring up civil unrest presumably it has something waiting in the wings for us.

All of this surveillance came about because of Terrorist atrocities carried out by Muslims, at least that is what we are led to believe

What role do the Global Elite play in all of this.
http://www.livevideo.com/video/rclark23/1E8F485B9…

What is there to hide if the Bilderberger meetings are benign http://www.disgrunt.com/blog/2006/10/20/blair-qui…

By: Brian Tomkinson

Brian Tomkinson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:19:46 +0000

Further to my earlier postings, I fear you have much to do to convince some more of your Conservative councillor colleagues to stop spying into people's affairs, judging by this extract from today's Daily Mail:

"Householders are having their rubbish secretly sifted and weighed to see how much food they are throwing away, it has emerged.

Wheelie-bins are being taken from residents without their knowledge, and spot checked to see how many scraps of food are in them and how much they weigh.

No permission is sought for the 'sampling' exercise and the householder is simply presented with a new bin.

Council taxpayers in Sussex have reacted furiously to the latest example of 'bin bureaucracy' and said officials had no right to snoop on the contents of their refuse.

Officials at Tory-run Mid-Sussex District Council attempted to reassure locals by telling them it is a 'fact-finding' exercise to gauge how much food is being dumped.

But residents branded the survey – which cost Â£1,700 – an invasion of privacy and fear it is the first step towards charging residents who fail to meet Government recycling targets."

By: Confused

Confused — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:42:13 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Tomkinson.
Not enough for Govt. merely to 'back off a bit'.
Its abuse of power has become overwhelming. Don't insult our intelligence with the pretexts of crime, terrorism and the environment for every bureaucratic inconvenience.
A fundamental shift is required to keep the state in its proper place. Keep the streets clean and safe, defend our borders, protect the vulnerable and otherwise leave us alone! So where is the righteous indignation from the Conservatives about the alarming erosion of civil liberties and increasing state intrusion?
Sadly, many Tory local councils seem as bad as their Labour counterparts.
The growth of the surveillance society indicates a sea change in the relationship between the state, and its hydra headed emanations, and the individual.
This is my country and I have every right to live in it without interference. Why does the state now want to treat me as a potential criminal, an enemy?

By: Brian Tomkinson

Brian Tomkinson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:41:18 +0000

On the subject of local authorities spying on their residents, I was appalled to read in yesterday's Sunday Times News Review that the Conservative-run Plymouth council is about to send a wheelie-bin information form to everyone's home (in Plymouth), with a threat of a fine for non-completion. Among the questions are: "Do you have children in your home who use disposable nappies? and "Are there any other reasons why a member of your household generates more rubbish than average?" Why are Conservative councils doing this? When will the leadership of the Conservative Party put a stop to this "big brother state"?

By: Adrian Peirson

Adrian Peirson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:00:40 +0000

John, I welcome the opportunity to Post on your Blog, In doing so accept that this is your Blog & that there may be political or legal sensitivities for you to consider & therefore some of my / our posts may not get published.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:00:56 +0000

What the government seems to be saying doesn't really stack up. Look at these two statements:
1. The terrorist threat is so great that we have to be able to arrest and imprison people for six weeks without charging them. The threat is much greater than the IRA, therefore. It is a battle which we are in great danger of losing.
2. We need the constant surveillance of cameras to repel criminals and to make the traffic flow safely and smoothly. Because of them, we need far fewer police on the streets. People are much safer today, as figures show, because there are far more policemen and women. The government will eventually crack the whole problem of crime with ID cards. The streets are now much safer than they were, because the more the government knows about "our" people, the safer and better everything becomes.

On the one hand, we have a "clear and present danger" and on the other "peace, perfect peace!

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:53:35 +0000

It used to be the view that ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law. Well these days it jolly well ought to be.

I would be interested to see research into how many laws the ostensibly law abiding person breaks on the average day, such as leaving your bin lid slightly open etc. I suspect it would conclude that we are in fact all criminals.

By: Stuart Mark Turner

Stuart Mark Turner — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:23:38 +0000

Mr Redwood,

You make a good point about the sheer amount of surveillance cameras which monitor our actions, in so far as only 4/100 muggings are solved because of a camera. When many police chiefs acknowledge that better street lighting would have a far more beneficial effect.

This of course raises questions about the validity of the majority of cameras and also other authoritian measures such as the 42 day detention which Labour is trying to force through Parliament.

By: David Williams

David Williams — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:02:10 +0000

Dear Mr Redwood

I have enjoyed many of the articles in your blog since you suggested I might wish to look at it, in response to a comment on Wat Tyler's blog. My comment then was to the effect that the Conservative Party is not making the most of showing how its polices will be different from those of the Labour Party.

I do hope that your party will put views such as the one you have just expressed forward without delay to show voters what things will change.

The right to private life – which should be, at least nominally, preserved under Artilce 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – means something considerable different to Britons than to Germans, I understand. There, a country which had a Nazi government from 1933 to 1945 and, for those in former East German, another totalitarian government until 1990, and where one's neighbours, of no great age may have made a living employed by the state as secret policemen, will not allow the government or private citizens to have CCTV cameras monitoring law abiding citizens' every movement in public places (not just on private property) day and night. We, in contrast, have had this imposed upon us. If your party were able to say that is going to change, speak up!

Best Wishes
David Williams

By: Neil Craig

Neil Craig — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:24:01 +0000

I think, like the atom bomb, the CCTV is something that cannot be uninvented. Civil liberties campaigners should therefore seek to see its civil liberties possibilities used.

Specificly I think collection & most investigation of CCTV should be under a new & publicly accountable authority rather than the police. We have had a number of instances recently where CCTV tapes which might have contradicted what the police claim have, in their hands, gone inexplicably missing. The Menendez case comes to mind.

Since CCTV does not involve the application of force but merely of information it is not automatically authoritarian – it is only that if purely in the hands of the authorities.