Britain sleep-walking into “surveillance society”
by Ian Mosley
Closed-circuit television cameras to monitor citizens’ behavior have become common in Europe, especially in England. In his futuristic novel 1984, George Orwell described a totalitarian state where everyone is constantly monitored by two-way cameras and viewing devices called “telescreens.” That vision is closer than ever to becoming a reality. The use of CCTV by the state to spy on its citizens is one of the most insidious and significant developments in our civilization today, and its importance cannot be overemphasized.
Now there has been a further development, in that the “telescreens” which allow Big Brother Tony Blair’s government to spy on the British people are now two-way. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070404083030.ootuegy7&show_article=1 reports that “Talking closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras which allow operators to shout at people behaving badly are to be installed across England…The scheme lets local council workers in a control centre monitor pictures from the cameras and talk to them if they feel they are doing something wrong.”
Or saying something “wrong” or politically incorrect. These cameras do have microphones and people’s conversations can be heard, a fact which is often overlooked.Now, it’s important to get one thing from that previous paragraph: “Council workers,” not police. Police monitoring of this kind is bad enough, but at least there is the fig leaf excuse that the purpose of the spy cameras is to stop crime. But now British people are to be watched by “council workers,” i.e. local government employees–political appointees. Anyone who has ever lived in the United Kingdom knows what that means. Local government in the U.K. is the country’s largest repository of patronage jobs, especially for the notoriously corrupt and venal Labour Party, which controls the majority of local government authorities in Britain. The personnel manning the telescreens on the lookout for politically incorrect behavior will be Labour Party hacks, who get their paycheck from the corrupt and deranged Tony Blair government.
According to http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070404083030.ootuegy7&show_article=1, “The cameras were piloted in Middlesbrough, north-east England, where they have been used to reprimand vandals and litter bugs, but now loudspeakers are being fitted to cameras in another 20 areas.” That creeping effect. When things like this aren’t nipped in the bud, they always metastasize. “Britain has some 4.2 million CCTV cameras and the government’s privacy watchdog, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, warned last year that the nation risks ’sleep-walking into a surveillance society’. Human rights group Privacy International says Britain is the worst country in the European Union at protecting individuals’ privacy, citing endemic surveillance.”
As always, these liberal watchdog groups are performing their purpose in a democracy. They respond to serious threats and governmental misbehavior with WORDS, which are listened to politely, duly reported in the news media, and then completely ignored by people with power. (Remember–the purpose of democracy is to PREVENT CHANGE.)
To add a note of the grotesque, http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070404083030.ootuegy7&show_article=1 reports that “…Schools in many areas were holding competitions for children to become the voice of CCTV cameras.” Big Brother starts with Little Brother, apparently. Maybe the children can turn in their parent for politically incorrect thoughts at home… or just wait a few years and the CCTVs will turn up in the homes as well.
A number of American cities have adopted British-style CCTV surveillance, although the practice is by no means as widespread as it is in England and most CCTVs are confined to traffic enforcement and known high-crime areas –so far. Nonetheless, America is already following in Big Brother’s footsteps.