It should come as no surprise whatsoever to learn that Nanny's local councils, having been enjoying the taste of power that spying on their local citizens gives them are reluctant to give it up.
Local councils in England are still spying on suspected minor offenders, despite being banned from doing so by law.
The law has forbidden them to spy on minor offenders since 2003, undercover spying methods are only permitted where a criminal law breach is suspected. However, Sir Christopher Rose (chief surveillance commissioner) said that it was of "significant concern" that some local authorities were going beyond what was allowed.
Sir Christopher, in a recently published report, is particularly concerned about "directed surveillance" (bugging of a public place or taking photographs of suspects) and the use of covert human intelligence, such as informants and undercover officers.
He notes that there is "a continuing failure on the part of authorising officers properly to demonstrate that less intrusive methods have been considered and why they have been discounted in favour of the tactic selected".
Factoid: Authorising officers are senior officials in local authorities, government departments and other public bodies who sign off surveillance requests under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
He went on to say:
"A specific act of surveillance may not be intrusive but a combination of acts may enable the construction of a profile; this requires careful consideration when judging whether an individual's private life is subject to interference.
It is not where the CCTV is placed (which may be overt or covert) but the manner in which the camera is used that is determinative of whether the surveillance is covert.
CCTV operators employed by local authorities are required to pass rigorous examination for the use of this controversial equipment, yet it appears that some police officers operate CCTV without obvious qualification."
As is evident, local councils cannot be trusted to stay within the terms/spirit of the law, the powers to bug and spy on people should be removed from them.
As noted elsewhere on this site, the more powers that are given to councils/bouncers/park wardens etc the more they are tempted to use them for their own frivolous reasons/amusement.
Nanny knows this full well, but continues to grant these powers in order to keep the population subdued and fearful.
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Ken,
ReplyDeleteI believe you cover the driving force behind Nanny's policies very clearly; She needs to keep us all frightened to make us easier to control, I was discussing a similar ploy last night with the leader of the opposition. (My wife) I was talking about the massive increase of programmes filmed with or about our police....They all seem to have the same message; We'll have you coz we're watching you and we know what you're up to etc etc.
Dicey said that power corrupts and absolute power abosolutely corrupts it seems he was ahead of his time and describes present day Nanny very accurately.
Would a change in government change the situation?...I doubt it because once one has the opportunity to use such powers, it is very hard to give up those powers as you never know when they will come in handy.
Makes you wonder what it must be like to live in a real democracy, I can just about remember but, my memories are getting a little cloudy....Still perhaps either Iraq or Afghanastan will invade us in a decade or so to impose democracy on us now they are democracies themselves....Now that would be ironical wouldn't it?
I have recently been reading a book called 'The Traveller' by someone called John Twelve Hawks. The book itself is a bit of a mish-mash of Dan Brown meets 'The Matrix' meets conspiracy theory by way of William Gibson *but* its core revolves around the idea that a frightened population is an easily controlled population. Further to this it says that a frightened population will accept anything the ruling elite say as long as it is made out to be in the interests of the population and that population will willingly submit to virtual imprisonment if frightened enough. It uses the idea of Benthams Panopticon (a prison where one person or a few people can see what all are doing) but updates it to use CCTV, internet surveillance etc to spy on the population and keep them under control.
ReplyDeleteWhilst it is a fictional novel a great deal of it rings true...we currently have mass surveillance and the threat of id cards (called Protective Link in the novel) to stop so called terrorism and Nannys media whip up the fear factor with stories of Swine Flu (which is going to kill us all), paedophiles on every corner and half of Al-Qaeda living over the chip shop in the High Street.
All that the novel covers is in existence right now and Nanny is using it all too enthusiastically.
Tonk
ReplyDeleteYou say a change in government would probably not improve the situation and I believe you are right. How many times do we read on this site that a tory council is responsible for blatant nannyism?
What does that mean for us though? The only opposition to Labour is Conservative. What do we do when we vote them in at the next general and nothing changes?
When we go to the ballot box there is no "No government thanks" option.
If we must have them, we at least need to make it clear we will not put up with thier nonsense. So far, unfortunately, we are not doing that, even close.
I fear the demise of our democracy will get a lot worse in the years to come.
Bucko:
ReplyDeleteThe problem in local authorities is that those that carry out the council's work are the same people no matter which party is in control of the council......Many councils use a training organisation that supports the EUSSR and socialism/communism and I have mooted on here in the past that many employed within local government and much of the public sector are more left wing than mainstream society so, it is in that groups interests to make Conservaive councils look bad....God knows they are succeeding.
Many council officers seem to have a common purpose which is to grow the size and power of the state and to take away freedoms and choices from the people they pretend to serve viz, you and I.
It has been mooted on other websites that Dave Ameron-Blair talks the language of "Common Purpose" I don't know whether he does or not but, at the moment, you can hardly get a fag paper between the main parties as they chase the centre ground....I am a rare breed in so much as I am a traditional Conservative but, I do feel I am being drawn towards UKIP as they appear to be nearer to my political beliefs.
Message to Ken:
RE Story about the Met Office in "In Your Face."
It is pointless fining the Met office as they are publically funded, fining them means fining yourself......Why is everyone so keen on fining people these days?....Kerching!!
Typo error:
ReplyDeleteShould have read
Dave Cameron-Blair.
I hate local councils. I don't see the point of them anymore. It is alarming to hear Cameron and the Tories wanting to invest more power in local councils because this is precisely what they want. BUT NOT WHAT I WANT!!!!
ReplyDeleteI've had enough run-ins with them to know that local councils are a bunch of low-life, incestuous nobody's, with no skill and no commonsense. get rid of the lot of them and let's look after ourselves.
Excelletn information, a must read by everyone. Thank you
ReplyDeleteTonk
ReplyDeleteRe fining Met Office...you ought to know by now I write "tongue in cheek".
However, in this case, it might give them cause to stop and think a bit before they waste their time and our money producing a long range forecast that is invariably wrong.
Ken
Ken:
ReplyDeletePoint taken:-)
Perhaps you should send them a pine cone or a piece of seaweed to make their forecasts more reliable...Or perhaps they could just look at whether the cattle are laying down or not in the local fields:-)
Tonk
ReplyDelete:)
We used to have a wooden man from Sweden (hung on the fence) that had a wooden penis which wood rise in the dry and fall in the wet (or the other way round...I can't remember).
Sadly he has demised...I suppose I could try the same myself...but...
Ken
Ken:
ReplyDeleteNow that final image has put me right off my Pate and Toast!!!
:-))
Common Purpose? Is our money really being spent on sending public employees to hear this inane waffle?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKnME5Zw4uM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.dwpcorruption.co.uk%2F%3Ftag%3Djulia-middleton&feature=player_embedded
anticant.
ReplyDeleteHave you had a burning-bush moment (small 'b' not capital)?
From recollections of your previous comments, it seemed like you might have a soft spot for Common Purpose.
In fact, some of us were wondering if you might be a Common Purpose double agent.
My dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI thought you would have realised by now that I am at the very least a triple agent.
I am in the unfortunate position of having been in at the beginnings of several things that started off with some competence and integrity but which - like most else these days - have not always lived up to their early promise.
One of them is counselling and communications skills. There ARE things worth learning about effective management and teamwork, but judging from this video I very much doubt whether Common Purpose is teaching them - though I gather that it turns over £5 million annually, which does make one wonder....
Incidentally, Tonk, it was Lord Acton (not Dicey) who coined the "all power corrupts" aphorism.
we need to reinstate rights for uk citizens.
ReplyDeletecitizens need powers to stop state intrusion,bugging,councils not collecting rubbish......
surveillance commissioner?? is this the ussr.
imagine running home to you wife or family to say you had landed that job.ths is a sick joke.
these types of people cost us £65 billion.
this country is now a joke.
What is so worrying is that a lot of people appear to LIKE this sort of thing, because it makes them "feel safer". They buy into the "if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear" crap - until their own collars get fingered, when they whine "I never thought this would happen to ME!"
ReplyDeleteWe are indeed living in a STASI-style state, and the Tories don't show much sign of wanting to dismantle it. I know what Winston Churchill would have said and done.
Nine million people (sheep?)swamping the swine 'flu hotline is appalling. Don't they take responsibility for their own lives any more? A few days in bed with Lemsip (or better still hot rum, lemon and honey) should do the trick for most of them. We were laid low for five weeks over last Christmas and New Year with a much more virulent form of 'flu and didn't even call the doctor, knowing how busy the surgery was.