A guidance
document put out this week by Hazel Blears' Department of Communities
has laid out plans for community "tension monitoring", entailing
snooping on neighbours and political activists, restrictions on the
media, and large-scale data sharing.
All of this in the name of 'community cohesion', one of New Labour's latest buzz phrases (defined in the document (PDF) as "what must happen in all communities to enable different groups of people to get on well together"*) and clearly the latest justification for ratcheting up the surveillance of individuals yet another notch.
This article should also be read in conjunction with ACPO and Home Office - Creating the police state
As the excellent Spy Blog
explains, the crux of the snooping proposals is contained in section 37
of the 'Guidance'. This calls on local authorities to establish a "multi-agency tension monitoring group" incorporating a long list of public sector groups plus representatives from other sectors.
These would collect and share 'qualitative community intelligence', including data on complaints about neighbours and 'political extremism'. That
includes 'low levels of trust in local politicians'. Of course,
'political extremism' means whatever the people doing the
data-gathering want it to mean (as Spy Blog suggests: "Anybody who disagrees with the Labour government ?").
Do
not laugh. This is how totalitarianism starts off - by gradually
painting its opponents as extremists, only over time the definition of "extremists" shifts, until suddenly you are an "extremist", simply for questioning the received wisdom - for being 'ideologically incorrect', if you like.
Fabian
Tassano wrote his essay 'Surviving in a Mediocracy' at the end of last
year. He saw what was coming, and this paragraph from that polemic came
immediately to mind as I read the 'Guidance':
"It should be obvious by now, to anyone who cares, that the principle of free speech is being gradually eroded in the West. Either by straightforward ditching, or — more subtly — by redefining it in ways designed to legitimise the prohibition of ideologically incorrect viewpoints." - Fabian TassanoLike almost every such measure that this Government have brought in, it is wrapped in a shibboleth, but you don't have to look too far to realise how flimsy that rationale for monitoring and collecting data on potential political opponents is.
This, like so many of the other databases and information sharing policies of this Government are open to abuse. The stories that filter through the press are many.
Where anti terror laws such as RIPA are used to spy on and monitor parents who applied for a school place for their children in Bournemouth.
Where is this all taking this country, where is it taking you, the individual taxpayer. Lets look at a scenario of what happens when databases and laws are abused by Government.
Lets look at the story of Average Joe Soap, clean, honest living man.
When Joe Soap arrived at his local Jobcentre to look for work, he had little idea of the nightmare that was about to unfold.
Joe,
a carpenter by trade, was forced into bankruptcy last year as his costs
continued to outstrip his income, and the small firm that he used to
run was liquidated, so he needed to find new employment.
Joe had lived in Burnley all his life, he had never been in trouble with the police and had always paid his taxes and VAT, and was feeling confident that he would have no trouble finding new work.
The
assistant in the Jobcentre was polite and pleasant and asked Joe lots
of questions about his work experience, and eventually asked for his
new super database number, printed on the back of his £300 ID card.
To his amazement, the assistant politely advised him that she needed to speak to her supervisor, and left Joe alone at the desk.
A
short time later, the supervisor called Joe into his office, where he
was met by an officer of the SOCA, cautioned and arrested under Section
132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
Taken to the police station he had his fingerprints, a photograph and
It transpires that Joe had been in
At some stage during his visit to London, Joe and his wife had gone to see the Houses of Parliament, as any first time tourist to London would do, but upon his arrival found that Parliament Square was full of demonstrators, so he and his wife decided to walk along Whitehall and head for Trafalgar square.
At some time during this walk, he had been photographed by the square with the demonstrators.
The
Police had also discovered that Joe was a member the Communist Party of
Great Britain, a legitimate organisation, but his membership was noted.
They
also disclosed that there had been a form incorrectly filled in during
his discussions with the HMRC when he closed down his firm, and the
questioning began to focus on this.
Why had he lied to the inspectors when his firm went bust. Joe insisted that he had filled in the form correctly, but the police were adamant that the information on the form was incorrect and that a supplementary form was missing, therefore he must have failed to provide it, and an investigation into possible fraud would ensue, despite Joe protesting everything was agreed with HMRC at the time.
Police then wanted to know why he had travelled from
Joe explained that he had been looking for work, and that someone had told him of work at a company in
The
police told him that they had already listened to the phone call, and
advised that they found its contents to be ‘suspicious’, as was his
journey. No further explanation was given.
Joe appeared before Magistrates the following morning. Police explained that they had conducted exhaustive enquiries, and that in their opinion Joe was a potential threat to his local neighbourhood.
They said that neighbours had been interviewed, some of whom complained that Joe used to start his noisy diesel van up at 6.30 every day when he had been working, and his immediate neighbour who had never particularly liked him, had complained about the noise late at night when he put rubbish out, which was noted as being a crime as rubbish was only collected at 10am.
As Joe and his wife liked to keep themselves to themselves they rarely spoke with the people in their street. Police found this to be suspicious and anti social.
Police
advised that they had found extremist material during a search of his
home (communist party brochures), had associated with a known criminal
in Oxford, and because he had been involved in a bar room brawl 10
years ago, believed that he was potentially violent, so police also
requested that he be put on the Violent and Sex Offenders register, and
be given a super ASBO, with conditions that he report his movements for
the next 2 years to the Police.
So
now, because of a misuse of databases and circumstantial links, Joe
Soap, clean, honest living man who wanted to find new work to pay the
mortgage and his bills, never been in trouble in his life, now has a
criminal record, his fingerprints and
Joe will never be able to work again, because the
He
is shunned everywhere in his home town, because the assistant at the
jobcentre, having read his entire file, could not keep her mouth shut
and told all her colleagues, who then went on to tell everyone else.
By creating repressive laws, allowing local authorities to spy and collect data on individuals based on hearsay, and building Databases all your eggs are now in one basket and make everyone, absolutely everyone suspicious, be the target of suspicion, and allow the lowest rated civil servant access to your very soul.
I can hear Hazel Blears protesting now that this is not what all these laws are for, but Hazel, please understand, THIS IS HOW THEY WILL BE APPLIED, if not in a dictatorial regime, certainly one in which it is very easy to hit all your targets when the laws are all on your side.
In a Libertarian society, the rights and laws protect the individual from the government.
In a dictatorship, the rights and laws protect the government from the people.
1984 - NuLab blueprint.
- Extensive surveillance network
No comment necessary - Already in place. - Politically motivated language, newspeak.
Political correctness, Diversity - Already in place. - Enormous and pointless public sector bureaucracies
QUANGOs (735 at last count) - Already in place. - Wealth redistribution on a huge scale
The giro!, tax credits - Already in place. - State compulsively trying to make citizens healthier, while health of population is abysmal.
5-a-day, obesity, smoking ban - Already in place. - Fighting wars with no objectives
Iraq - Already in place. - Persecution of political opponents
Watch this space.
