An official report confirms what many Britons have feared. We have become one of the most spied-upon nations in the world. More than four million CCTV cameras are watching us. Every day the average Briton will be filmed about 300 times.
The national DNA database, designed to catch criminals, is spreading with more than 3.5 million samples, including hundreds of thousands from people who have not been charged with any offence.
This process has crept up on us and barely caused a squeak of protest.
But when foreigners come to Britain they are astonished and horrified to see levels of surveillance found nowhere else in the world except in Russia and China.
We should not be too surprised. Tony Blair may be the smiling face of New Labour but he leads a political party which, not so long ago, was proud to be called socialist and fervently admired the Soviet Union.
There are many within the Labour Party who grew up as Trotskyists, Stalinists or Maoists. They not only see nothing wrong in tracing, tracking and watching the citizens’ every move but believe it is the duty of a government to do so.
Such things are always done in the name of fighting crime and making us safer.
And yet does all this surveillance make us feel any safer?
Of course not. The chief effect of CCTV surveillance has been to slap £60 fines and penalty points on drivers who stray a little over the speed limit - and who are honest enough to own up.
Dishonest drivers have little to fear. Neither have the thugs and vandals who terrorise our city streets.
We have many fears about this level of surveillance but we see few benefits. Britain’s all-pervasive spy system is unstoppable and unaccountable.
Big Brother is watching us. But who is watching Big Brother?
Show our children the way before its too late
Two reports today suggest that British teenagers are the worst-behaved in Europe and Asbos are now seen as a badge of honour among young thugs.
Is anyone surprised? We are reaping the results of the 1960s anything-goes generation working its way through schools, courts and the police.
The whole system is infested with the belief that children must be given chance after chance before they are punished in any meaningful way.
The result is feral gangs who play the system, fearing neither CCTV nor police.
This is a gross betrayal not only of victims but of young people, too. Children need limits.
Many of today’s young criminals would have turned out fine if only someone, at some stage, had used the magic word - No.
This article posted on November 2, 2006 at 9:30 pm and tagged; clayton ince
Can we really be safer?
The national DNA database, designed to catch criminals, is spreading with more than 3.5 million samples, including hundreds of thousands from people who have not been charged with any offence.
This process has crept up on us and barely caused a squeak of protest.
But when foreigners come to Britain they are astonished and horrified to see levels of surveillance found nowhere else in the world except in Russia and China.
We should not be too surprised. Tony Blair may be the smiling face of New Labour but he leads a political party which, not so long ago, was proud to be called socialist and fervently admired the Soviet Union.
There are many within the Labour Party who grew up as Trotskyists, Stalinists or Maoists. They not only see nothing wrong in tracing, tracking and watching the citizens’ every move but believe it is the duty of a government to do so.
Such things are always done in the name of fighting crime and making us safer.
And yet does all this surveillance make us feel any safer?
Of course not. The chief effect of CCTV surveillance has been to slap £60 fines and penalty points on drivers who stray a little over the speed limit - and who are honest enough to own up.
Dishonest drivers have little to fear. Neither have the thugs and vandals who terrorise our city streets.
We have many fears about this level of surveillance but we see few benefits. Britain’s all-pervasive spy system is unstoppable and unaccountable.
Big Brother is watching us. But who is watching Big Brother?
Show our children the way before its too late
Two reports today suggest that British teenagers are the worst-behaved in Europe and Asbos are now seen as a badge of honour among young thugs.
Is anyone surprised? We are reaping the results of the 1960s anything-goes generation working its way through schools, courts and the police.
The whole system is infested with the belief that children must be given chance after chance before they are punished in any meaningful way.
The result is feral gangs who play the system, fearing neither CCTV nor police.
This is a gross betrayal not only of victims but of young people, too. Children need limits.
Many of today’s young criminals would have turned out fine if only someone, at some stage, had used the magic word - No.
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