Mark Gilbert’s Blog

My first thought when I read about this is of a quote by Benjamin Franklin taken from the book, Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin which reads as follows;

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”

I simply cannot understand why the government needs to make this many requests, and I know that National government will trot out the usual lines, such as “blah blah blah terrorism”, and “blah blah blah national security”, which to a point I agree with, but I think 500,000 in one year is pushing the limits of what is really required. What’s even more worrying is that 1,707 of them were made by local councils. What possible use can local government have for needing telephone and communication records? To check if I’m recycling correctly? Some councils listed, to combat dog fouling, because I’m sure people ring or e-mail friends all the time and brag about letting their dog shit in the street.

This is just one more example of just how much this government likes spying on it’s citizens. There are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK, and each citizen is seen by them 300 times a day. Did I just fall through a time-warp, I could have sworn it was 2008 a minute ago, not 1984. To be honest I see no end in sight, the British public seem to have long ago given in to CCTV and now accept being watched every time they leave the house. Personally I think it is unacceptable and the government should give a valid reason for each and every CCTV camera in the country, and blanket arguments like terrorism shouldn’t be enough. Real reasons such as decreasing crime by a quantifiable amount since being installed, or to aid detection in high crime areas.

Now before you take to the street in protest of the cameras, please remember, they’re watching you.

Cheers