Britain rapidly turning into a Orwellian Police State

[Dok]

Now, govt wants Britons to reveal sexual preferences
6 Dec 2008, 0045 hrs IST, IANS


 
LONDON: The UK government now wants to know the sexual preference of its citizens, leaving the Conservatives fuming over the “Big Brotherly” intrusion into privacy.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) will officially collect data on sexual identity of Britons from January 2009. This is seen as a prelude to including a question on sexual identity in the next census to be held in 2011.

The official explanation for the survey is that the information would be used to assess future needs for housing, healthcare and school places and will help “fulfil legal duties on equality”.

It is not compulsory for individuals to answer the question, but opposition MPs see it as no consolation. But Karen Dunnell, national statistician, insisted most people would be willing to answer questions about their sexuality in confidence.

Officials say privacy of citizens will be honoured when they are asked the question. The question will be printed on a card that will be shown to the citizens who can then tick their choice.
 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3799011,prtpage-1.cms

[sociostudent]

Now, govt wants Britons to reveal sexual preferences
6 Dec 2008, 0045 hrs IST, IANS


 
LONDON: The UK government now wants to know the sexual preference of its citizens, leaving the Conservatives fuming over the “Big Brotherly” intrusion into privacy.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) will officially collect data on sexual identity of Britons from January 2009. This is seen as a prelude to including a question on sexual identity in the next census to be held in 2011.

The official explanation for the survey is that the information would be used to assess future needs for housing, healthcare and school places and will help “fulfil legal duties on equality”.

It is not compulsory for individuals to answer the question, but opposition MPs see it as no consolation. But Karen Dunnell, national statistician, insisted most people would be willing to answer questions about their sexuality in confidence.

Officials say privacy of citizens will be honoured when they are asked the question. The question will be printed on a card that will be shown to the citizens who can then tick their choice.
 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3799011,prtpage-1.cms

Sounds like what happened in the movie V for Vendetta. 

[matrixcutter]

Big Brother CCTV to spy on pupils aged four - complete with CPS evidence kit
By Jason Lewis
Last updated at 6:51 AM on 29th December 2008

Schools have installed CCTV cameras and microphones in classrooms to watch and listen to pupils as young as four.

The Big Brother-style surveillance is being marketed as a way to identify pupils disrupting lessons when teachers’ backs are turned.

Classwatch, the firm behind the system, says its devices can be set up to record everything that goes on in a classroom 24 hours a day and used to compile ‘evidence’ of wrongdoing.


Shadow Children's Minister Tim Loughton is chairman of Classwatch

The equipment is sold with Crown Prosecution Service-approved evidence bags to store material to be used in court cases.

The microphones and cameras can be used during lessons and when a classroom is unattended, such as during lunch breaks.

But data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner has warned the surveillance may be illegal and demanded to know why primary and secondary schools are using this kind of sophisticated equipment to watch children.

Officials said they would be contacting schools to seek ‘proper justification’ for the equipment’s use.

Classwatch is set to face further scrutiny over the role of Shadow Children’s Minister Tim Loughton, the firm’s £30,000-a-year chairman.

The equipment, which includes ceiling-mounted microphones and cameras and a hard drive recorder housed in a secure cabinet, is operating in around 85 primary and secondary schools and colleges.

The systems cost around £3,000 to install in each classroom or can be leased for about £50 per classroom per month.

The firm says the devices act as ‘impartial witnesses’ which can provide evidence in disputes and curb bullying and unruly behaviour and protect teachers against false allegations of abuse – plus provide evidence acceptable in court.


Parents and politicians are worried about the intrusion of CCTV in schools and society in general

The firm also promotes its equipment as an educational tool, allowing ‘key lessons and class discussions to be recorded for revision, or for pupils who have missed important material or who may need extra help’.

Schools are required to inform all parents that microphones and cameras are monitoring their children.

But last night an Information Commissioner’s Office spokesman said the system raised ‘privacy concerns for teachers, students and their parents’.

He said the ICO would contact Classwatch and schools using the devices.

He added: ‘The use of microphones to record conversations is deeply intrusive and we will be seeking further clarification on their use in schools and, if necessary, we will issue further guidance to headteachers.’

Martin Johnson, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, added: ‘We strongly object to schools or colleges having free rein to use CCTV and microphones, especially in sensitive areas such as classrooms, changing rooms and toilets.

‘We expect CCTV be used appropriately and not to spy on staff or pupils.’

Classwatch director Andrew Jenkins, who set up the firm with his wife, said he welcomed further discussions with the Information Commissioner.

He said Classwatch had tried to guard against accusations of bringing Big Brother into schools.

‘The system can be turned on and turned off as they wish,’ he said. ‘It is a bit like a video at home. This is not Big Brother. The system is under the control of the teacher.’

Asked whether the company had taken account of the Commissioner’s strict rules on workplace monitoring, he said: ‘Compliance with the Data Protection Act has always been a priority.

‘Schools are required to ensure they follow protocols which recognise the privacy of pupils and staff. The overwhelming experience has been that pupils feel safer and that teachers feel more in control of their classrooms.’

Last night, Tory frontbencher Mr Loughton insisted there was no conflict between his political role and part-time job.

He said: ‘I am not the Shadow Minister for Schools, I am the Shadow Minister for Children. I don’t speak on school security.’

He declares his involvement with the firm on the MPs’ register of interests and added: ‘I have never sought to advocate this. I went through this very carefully before I got involved in it and it doesn’t conflict with anything I do.’

Labour MP Barry Sheerman, the chairman of the Commons Education Committee, said: ‘If the Information Commissioner is concerned, we all should be concerned and I think that my committee should look at it when Parliament returns.’

A Schools Department spokesman said: ‘We do not prescribe what schools must do to tackle security.’

[Godfather77]

Frail pensioners could be fitted with electronic tags to save money on night cover
03rd January 2009
Full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1104544/Frail-pensioners-fitted-electronic-tags-save-money-night-cover.html

Frail and vulnerable pensioners in sheltered housing could be fitted with electronic tags to save cash on night cover. The devices, which are usually used to check up on criminals on early release, would be monitored by a warden. The idea is that the tags would alert staff to 'an unexpected change' in a resident's routine.

Labour-run Lancashire County Council is expected to give the go-ahead to the pilot scheme next month as part of a plan to cut costs by £30,000.

But campaigners for the elderly have denounced it as demeaning and dangerous. Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said:

'Technology must only be used with a person's full consent and as part of a comprehensive care package. 'It must never be a substitute for good quality care or a way to reduce care costs.'

Geoff Driver, the Conservative group leader at the council, said: 'This is an absolute disgrace. 'It will be an appalling intrusion on the privacy and self-respect of these elderly people. 'It also poses a risk to their safety. There is no substitute for a real person to come and help.

'If it happened to a relative of mine, I would be round to the home with a pair of shears and cut it off.'

The planned scheme is one of a raft of cost-cutting measures proposed by the county council's cabinet which are due to go the vote on February 12.

Mr Driver said: 'We will vigorously oppose it but it's a Labour proposal in a Labour-run council so the likelihood is that it will go ahead. 'If it does, I shudder to think how far it might be extended.'

[Godfather77]

Organs of 50 NHS donors are sold to foreigners who pay £75,000 for each operation
04th January 2009
Full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1105062/Organs-50-NHS-donors-sold-foreigners-pay-75-000-operation.html

The organs of British donors are being given to private patients from overseas - despite a severe shortage of organs for people in this country.

Documents show that 50 livers from British donors were given to patients from Cyprus, Greece and other countries, even though 259 British patients are waiting for a potentially life-saving transplant. It means British people with incurable liver disease could potentially die waiting for a transplant when suitable organs have been handed to foreigners.

The case has caused outrage at a time when the number of people on NHS waiting lists for organs is at an all time high of 7,963 - mainly people waiting for kidneys.

Gordon Brown even considered bringing in a system of presumed consent to deal with the massive shortage of organs, although the plans have been put on hold for now.

There is no national policy on whether organs should be given to so-called tourists, with some hospitals saying all European Union residents should have equal access to organs, while others say British patients should have priority.

Freedom of Information requests have revealed that foreigners pay around £75,000 for the operations. This money is shared between the transplant surgeon, who may get around £20,000, and the hospital trust. The money does not pay for the organ itself, but the hospital accommodation and the pre- and post-operative care.

But campaigners said it was indefensible that organs should be given to foreign patients when they could have helped save the life of a Briton.

The documents reveal that overall, 40 livers were given to people from Greece and Cyprus, with a further three going to Malta and the Czech Republic.

The rest went to people from countries outside the EU, such as Libya, the United Arab Emirates, China and Israel. Livers can only be given to non-Europeans if they are deemed to be not of good enough quality for British patients. 

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'We recognise that this is complex area and Department of Health officials are in discussion with NHS Blood and Transplant and the transplant community to provide further clarification.'

[Godfather77]

MPs may be denied vote on £100 bin tax
January 18, 2009
Full article:- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5537327.ece

The Government has quietly adopted powers enabling it to introduce national pay-as-you-throw rubbish taxes of up to £100 without a vote in parliament.

The move, which was confirmed this weekend by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will allow councils across the country to impose extra charges on householders who leave out too much non-recyclable waste.

The Tories discovered the bin tax measure in a little-noticed clause of the Climate Change Act.

“New taxes are being imposed by arrogant and out-of-touch rulers, showing contempt for the democratic process. The imposition of extra-parliamentary taxation is a constitutional outrage,” said Eric Pickles, shadow communities and local government secretary.”

Internal Whitehall documents released last year showed the government is planning for at least two-thirds of all homes to be hit by the bin taxes.

Under one option discussed by ministers, households would have to pay for special bin bags. Rubbish not placed in these bags would remain uncollected. Households would be charged for the size of their bins; families requiring a bigger bin will pay the most. Those requiring a weekly rubbish collection would also have to pay an extra charge.

[matrixcutter]

Big Brother database a 'terrifying' assault on traditional freedoms
Plans condemned as the greatest threat to civil rights for decades

By Ben Russell, Home Affairs Correspondent
Thursday, 15 January 2009


Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has voiced his concern about the erosion of civil liberties

Sweeping new powers allowing personal information about every citizen to be handed over to government agencies faced condemnation yesterday amid warnings that Britain is experiencing the greatest threats to civil rights for decades.


Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the pressure group Liberty, warned that the laws, published yesterday, were among a string of measures that amounted to a "terrifying" assault on traditional freedoms.

Proposals in the Coroners and Justice Bill include measures to authorise ministers to move huge amounts of data between government departments and other agencies and public bodies. Bodies that hold personal information include local councils, the DVLA, benefits offices and HM Revenue and Customs.

The Bill will allow ministers to use data-sharing orders to overturn strict rules that require information to be used only for the purpose it was taken. But it places no limit on the information that could eventually be shared between public bodies, potentially allowing vast amounts of personal data to be shared by officials across Whitehall, agencies or other public bodies.

Safeguards in the Bill will ensure that the proposed orders are considered by the Information Commissioner and require them to be formally approved by Parliament.

Ministers insisted there would be a series of safeguards to ensure that data was secure and not misused. But in an interview with The Independent Ms Chakrabarti warned the measure was one of a string of threats to civil liberties that range from attacks on the Human Rights Act, the advent of ID cards, and proposals to retain data on internet and email use. She declared: "The combination amounts to the most authoritarian time in my lifetime. In Britain, we are seeing happening things I would never have dreamt of seeing."

Ms Chakrabarti also condemned plans in the Bill to restrict the use of juries in inquests and hold hearings in secret. She added: "It's the second week of January and we have already seen plans for new gang Asbos and secret coroners as well as very broad data- sharing measures. What will next week bring?"

David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, condemned the Government for "burying more building blocks of its surveillance state in a bill to reform the coroner service."

Nick Herbert, the shadow Justice Secretary, added: "This government has shown a cavalier attitude to the security of personal data. There must be proper safeguards for any measures which will enable ministers, with minimal parliamentary scrutiny, to allow sensitive information to be exchanged without barriers when it may have been collected for an unrelated purpose."

Speaking as she prepared to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the National Council for Civil Liberties this year, Ms Chakrabarti vowed to resist a series of proposals she said would seriously damage personal privacy in Britain. But she predicted that the "worm was turning" with more people concerned about the importance of civil liberties.

Ms Chakrabarti warned about the "intrusion on privacy" created by the growth of the national DNA database, and attacked plans for national ID cards, due to be rolled out to the first British citizens this year, arguing that the developments had the potential to create a huge all-purpose database holding personal details of ever aspect of people's lives.

She said: "If the tide is not turned on communications data, data-sharing, ID cards and the DNA database, if that tide does not turn and if worse still it accelerates we are looking at a very different Britain in a very short time. We are looking at a Britain where there is no such thing as personal privacy at all."

She warned: "There is a creeping contempt for individual liberty and dignity. There is no sense of history."

Yesterday Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, insisted ministers would have to pass a series of hurdles before data-sharing was authorised, including public consultation, a report by the independent Information Commissioner, and the approval of an order in Parliament.

He said: "I think all members of the public, as I am, are in two places on this. Data relating to you and your family should be protected and that is an absolute imperative. But you don't want personally to give the same information again and again if it can be safely held and safely transferred."

Erosion of civil liberties: A call to arms

Senior figures in British public life are launching a "call to arms" to highlight the erosion of historic civil liberties.

These campaigners, who include the former director of public prosecutions Sir Ken MacDonald, the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith, as well as the musician Brian Eno and the author Philip Pullman, are backing a series of events to coincide with a major civil rights convention in London next month, at which they will speak. Organisers expect 1,000 people to attend the Convention on Modern Liberty, at which other speakers will include Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, Dominic Grieve, the shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, the campaigning Tory MP, and Lord Bingham, the former law lord.

Organisers of the event, at the Institute of Education, including the TUC and the rights group Liberty, said Britain could become "a new kind of police state". And yesterday, the journalist Henry Porter, one of the organisers, said: "This is a call to arms," and he warned of "the constant moves to a database state and threats to an individual". He added: "This is thoroughly dangerous." Baroness Helena Kennedy, the human rights lawyer, said: "We are seeing ways in which our system of law and the protections we have as citizens are slowly but surely being undermined. Liberty is being eroded for all of us."

[matrixcutter]

BoE secret money printing
[Monday, January 12, 2009 | 5 comments ]
Billionmark comment

Weimar style policy is now global. With nothing backing paper currencies except other currencies disaster awaits. As Marc Faber says "citizens, who are not dumb, realize that the Central Banks are engaged in a contest to print the most money, to keep the cost labor low, the employment high and to erase the Nationial debts. This will destroy the currencies, confidence and create instability......I expect there maybe a panic into Gold and a scramble into physical gold"

from the UK Telegraph

The Bank of England will be able to print extra money without having legally to declare it under new plans which will heighten fears that the Government will secretly pump extra cash into the economy.

The Government is set to throw out the 165-year-old law that obliges the Bank to publish a weekly account of its balance sheet -- a move that will allow it theoretically to embark covertly on so-called quantitative easing. The Banking Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, abolishes a key section of the law laid down by Robert Peel's Government in 1844 that originally granted the Bank the sole right to print UK money.

The ostensible reason for the reform, which means the Bank will not have to print details of its own accounts and the amount of notes and coins flowing through the UK economy, is to allow the Bank more power to overhaul troubled financial institutions in the future, under its Special Resolution Authority.

However, some have warned that it means "there is nothing to stop an unreported and unmonitored flooding of the money market by the undisciplined use of the printing presses."

It comes after the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee cut interest rates by half a percentage point, leaving them at the lowest level since the bank's foundation in 1694.

With the Bank rate now at 1.5 percent, most economists suspect that the Government and Bank will soon be forced to start quantitative easing -- directly increasing the quantity of money in the economy -- in a drastic attempt to prevent a recession of unprecedented depth.

Although the amount of easing is likely to be limited, news of this increased secrecy will spark comparisons with Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe, where uncontrolled use of the central banks' printing presses ultimately caused hyperinflation.

The Bank said it will still publish details of its balance sheet, but, significantly, the data -- the main indicator of the extent of quantitative easing -- will not be presented until more than a month has elapsed. For instance, under the new terms of the law, if the Bank were to have embarked on a policy of quantitative easing last month, the figures on this would not be published until the end of this month.

The reforms, which are likely to be implemented later this year, will make the Bank of England by far the most secretive major central in the world, experts said.

In the US, where the Federal Reserve has already cut rates to close to zero and started quantitative easing, the main way to track its purchases of securities and the expansion of its balance sheet is through precisely these same weekly accounts.

"Quite why the Bank has to keep its operations so shrouded in secrecy is a mystery to me," said Simon Ward, economist at New Star. "This will make it much more difficult to track what the Bank is doing."

Among the details which will no longer be published are those revealing the extent to which London's banks are using the Bank's deposit facilities -- a yardstick of pressure in the financial system.

Debating the issue in the House of Lords recently, Lord James of Blackheath, a Conservative peer, said: "Remove [this] control and there is nothing to stop an unreported and unmonitored flooding of the money market by the undisciplined use of the printing presses.

"If we went down that path we would be following a road which starts in Weimar, goes on through Harare, and must not end in Westminster and London. That is the great fear that the abolition of that section will bring about -- but the Bill abolishes it."

[Skep Dick]

Police set to step up hacking of home PCs

THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.

The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws.

The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room.

Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.

Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.

A remote search can be granted if a senior officer says he “believes” that it is “proportionate” and necessary to prevent or detect serious crime — defined as any offence attracting a jail sentence of more than three years.

However, opposition MPs and civil liberties groups say that the broadening of such intrusive surveillance powers should be regulated by a new act of parliament and court warrants.

They point out that in contrast to the legal safeguards for searching a suspect’s home, police undertaking a remote search do not need to apply to a magistrates’ court for a warrant.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights group, said she would challenge the legal basis of the move. “These are very intrusive powers – as intrusive as someone busting down your door and coming into your home,” she said.

“The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation. Without those safeguards it’s a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy.”

She said the move had parallels with the warrantless police search of the House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tory MP: “It’s like giving police the power to do a Damian Green every day but to do it without anyone even knowing you were doing it.”

Richard Clayton, a researcher at Cambridge University’s computer laboratory, said that remote searches had been possible since 1994, although they were very rare. An amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 made hacking legal if it was authorised and carried out by the state.

He said the authorities could break into a suspect’s home or office and insert a “key-logging” device into an individual’s computer. This would collect and, if necessary, transmit details of all the suspect’s keystrokes. “It’s just like putting a secret camera in someone’s living room,” he said.

Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network.

Police say that such methods are necessary to investigate suspects who use cyberspace to carry out crimes. These include paedophiles, internet fraudsters, identity thieves and terrorists.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said such intrusive surveillance was closely regulated under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. A spokesman said police were already carrying out a small number of these operations which were among 194 clandestine searches last year of people’s homes, offices and hotel bedrooms.

“To be a valid authorisation, the officer giving it must believe that when it is given it is necessary to prevent or detect serious crime and [the] action is proportionate to what it seeks to achieve,” Acpo said.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, agreed that the development may benefit law enforcement. But he added: “The exercise of such intrusive powers raises serious privacy issues. The government must explain how they would work in practice and what safeguards will be in place to prevent abuse.”

The Home Office said it was working with other EU states to develop details of the proposals.

[Godfather77]

Police 'enter second Tory MP's Commons office'
21 Jan 2009
Full article:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4309289/Police-enter-second-Tory-MPs-Commons-office.html

Police entered a second Tory MP's parliamentary office without a search warrant demanding to see constituency correspondence sent to Daniel Kawczynski MP, it was claimed in the House of Commons tonight.

Mr Kawczynski said he found it "disgraceful" that police had raided his office this evening after the controversy over the arrest of shadow immigration minister Damian Green. The Tory MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham told the Commons tonight: "To my great embarrassment and eternal shame, I was so weak I handed over the letter they demanded from my constituent."

Mr Kawczynski used a point of order to raise the matter, telling MPs: "I am extremely shocked at what I am going to say." He said he was informed by his office about the police raid as he was due to make a speech in a Commons debate this evening.

"I received a note from my office that there was a police officer in my office demanding to see correspondence. "They were already present in my office and I went down to see them after making my speech.

"They said they were investigating an important case with regards to correspondence that had been sent to ministers and wanted to see handwriting samples of writing that people had written to me.

"I was extremely appalled that the officer can behave in this way, to enter a Member of Parliament's office with no warrant and to demand constituency correspondence."

He said he would "have to live with" his decision to hand over the letter demanded by the police.

Mr Kawczynski told Deputy Commons Speaker Sir Michael Lord: "After everything that has happened to Mr Green, I find it disgraceful that this is happening and I urge you to investigate."

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood demanded that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith make a statement to MPs about the matter. He said: "It is clear this is a shocking event that has taken place."

Mr Ellwood said that following the search of Mr Green's Commons office "we did have assurances that no offices would be entered unless a warrant was produced and that clearly hasn't happened today and we deserve to have some sort of clarification by the Home Secretary".

[Treseler]

Im sorry for britain, it already sounds like its a prison over there! I hope you guys rise up somehow. How about everyone just stops going to work? hahaha, thatll collapse the system!

[Zed]

I told countles people (in the UK) that the UK was heading this way back in 97.

The only response was Mockery and verbal abuse.

[sociostudent]

I told countles people (in the UK) that the UK was heading this way back in 97.

The only response was Mockery and verbal abuse.

What's your response now?

[Zed]

What's your response now?

I moved back to the US.

[Treseler]

I moved back to the US.

Didnt laugh in their faces first?

[SuzakaDusk]

I felt like it was becoming a big brother state back in 2001, when I returned from Germany after living there for 5 years I went to the UK Job Center. I noticed alot of cameras there within the place but prior to my move to Germany in 96 there was not that many.I also noticed more cameras around the city too ( Leicester - my home and birth city).Even cameras on the buses too. So I took it upon myself on seeing any camera to stick up two fingers with a nice smile;)..

Also the line of questioning at the Job Center made me feel like a criminal. Even had the gaol to ask me why I came back to my home country, "Eh I am British can't I return home or something? "I replied. The lady did not like my attitude even after showing her my birth certificate and UK Passport and made the threat that the "security" could take me off the premises.

My best friend who is off Indian background was with me at the time, after the lady called me a racist. " Excuse me say that again" my best mate asked, the lady then backed down.

All this for getting back into the "System" there to gain some "income support" whilst I was looking for work upon my return back to the UK.

Let's say they gave me HELL and I was denied my "income support" for a whole month, even thou I piad into the "System" and even my contribrutions in Germany ( via the EU thing) meant nothing even thou I showed the correct paperwork from the German Job Center ( arbeitsamt).

They (Job center) are really nosy and intrusive , well they was back then. I guess they be worse now.

Sorry for rant x

[Treseler]

Not a rant really.. Gives me more of a picture of whats going on over there.


Not to sound crazy or anything.. But i hope the end of the world actually happens on 2012.

Its just too out of hand.

[Zed]

Didnt laugh in their faces first?

Flipped the country the bird as I boarded the plane to leave.

[matrixcutter]

Threat to privacy under data law, campaigners warn
Personal information about individuals' lives could be handed over without their consent to public bodies and private firms under a new law, campaigners have warned.
 
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:45PM GMT 26 Jan 2009

Data held by the police, the NHS, schools, the Inland Revenue, local councils and the DVLA could all end up in private hands, according to Privacy International.

At the same time, information gathered by companies including hotel registrations, bank details and telecommunications data could be transferred to the Government as part of the provisions of the Coroner's and Justice Bill, it is claimed.

The campaign group admits the "mass exchange of personal information has the potential to deliver some benefit".

But it says it also represents "vast risks" associated with "privacy, security and human autonomy."

Privacy International also warns that there will be no protection from such mass transfers of data, which would only require ministerial approval under the new law.

A report on privacy "Black Zones" warns that the bill, which receives its second reading, would destroy civil liberties and the purpose of the Data Protection Act.

Privacy International says the proposals were hidden in a clause of the bill and there was an "urgent need to consider the extraordinary dangers created by the proposal."

Its report states: "Previously people's consent was required, but now the consent of the governed is no longer being sought.

"In fact, the Government's proposal eradicates consent from the governing framework, thus placing not only our data at risk but also fundamental tenets of our democracy."

The report said Privacy International says the new law would allow a National Identity Register by the back door.

It claims it will lead to the bulk transfer of NHS medical files to the insurance industry; the disclosure of police intelligence data to private investigators and investigation departments of companies; and the transfer of personal financial data to HM Revenue and Customs.

At the same time, it could result in the disclosure of all vehicle insurance data from insurance companies to DVLA; the sharing of client and customer lists between companies and the Government; the sharing of data between council tax records and national databases; and the disclosure of individual school and university academic records to funding authorities.

The proposals would "substantially increase the risk of security breaches of personal information" by the Government, which has been caught in a series of scandals over the loss of personal data, the report says.

Privacy International say the bill contains "meaningless protections and oversight" and cite a passage which reads: "Before an order is made a general invitation must be given to all those who might be affected by the order to make representations and the Information Commissioner must be given a copy of the order and may submit a report in relation to it (which must be laid before Parliament), but he has no power to amend the order.

"The order must be approved by Parliament, but Parliament has no power to amend the order."

Liberty, the civil rights group, has echoed the views expressed in the report.

However ministers insist the Bill is intended to "modernise" the way that information is collected and transferred between departments to allow more "joined-up government."

[Godfather77]

Always so difficult to log onto the PP Forum over the past month.  I either get broken links from Google or when I do manage to log onto the forum the whole site freezes.  As its' only ever this site its' happens on its' really odd?  Any ideas on what is happenning, I'm all ears.

Them and us child register: Politicians and celebrities can keep their details off a controversial new database
27th January 2009
Full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1128493/The-child-register-Politicians-celebrities-THEIR-family-details-Big-Brother-database.html

Tens of thousands of politicians, celebrities and local bigwigs will be able to keep their addresses and details about their families off the Government's new children's database, it was revealed yesterday. They will be allowed to withdraw everything but their children's names, sex and ages from the controversial computer record.

Powerful and influential parents who believe they will be in danger from others who may be 'hostile' will have their details struck off the ContactPoint database along with domestic violence victims and those in witness protection programmes.

But the great majority of ordinary families will be compelled to display their contact details alongside information about their children and their schools, doctors and social workers.

The scale of the get-out provoked further concerns about the security of the database. Nearly 400,000 individuals will be able to look at information on ContactPoint, including council staff, health workers, police officers, and even staff of voluntary groups and charities who have passed criminal records checks.

Jill Kirby of the centre-right think tank Centre for Policy Studies said: 'This is a clear admission by the Government that ContactPoint will not be secure.

'It is not surprising that public figures will not want their addresses or details about their children on it. But why should they have different rules from the rest of us?'

Shami Chakrabarti of the Liberty pressure group said: 'If you feel you need to shield one group of children, it throws doubt over everyone's security. Every child should be shielded from this database.'
Henry Porter of the Convention on Modern Liberty said: 'This gives the lie to every claim they make about security. It is going to be insecure.

'We have a government that wants to track our every move, store and share our data, fingerprint our children, retain our DNA, hack our computers, log every email internet connection and phone call.'

Ministers say ContactPoint will help teachers, doctors, police officers and social workers find out rapidly whether other organisations have involvement with a child.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: 'All ContactPoint records are extremely secure whether or not they are shielded.' Decisions on shielding 'will be taken on a case by case basis'.

[Godfather77]

MPs attack 'draconian' data plan
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Full article:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7852480.stm

Plans to allow people's details to be shared across government departments and agencies have been criticised as "draconian" in the Commons. The Tories and Lib Dems said they would oppose the proposals as well as others to hold some inquests in private.

Minister Jack Straw said "responsible" data sharing would stop families having to speak to different agencies "many times over" when a relative died. MPs are debating the proposals in the Coroners and Justice Bill.

But he was accused of using the controversial inquest proposals, dropped last year from counter-terrorism legislation, as a "red rag" to attract attention while data-sharing proposals were "smuggled" in.

The Information Sharing Orders would remove data protection restrictions that mean information can only be used for the purpose it was taken.

For the Liberal Democrats, David Howarth told MPs the "amazingly broad" proposals on data sharing were "outrageous" enough to reject the bill on its own. He said the plans were not confined to public bodies, private companies in any country could also see people's information, he said, and there would be a greater risk of information being lost.

Among other measures in the bill is one to allow some inquests in England and Wales to be held without juries.

A measure to exclude relatives and journalists from some inquests had been dropped last year from counter-terrorism legislation, having been opposed by military families.

Mr Straw said there would be safeguards in place to stop the use of inquests without juries becoming widespread and said people would only be excluded from "parts of the inquest". But he added he understood why MPs were "uncomfortable", adding: "It's a real difficulty. What we have to do is try and find a way through it."

[sociostudent]

Them and us child register: Politicians and celebrities can keep their details off a controversial new database
27th January 2009
Full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1128493/The-child-register-Politicians-celebrities-THEIR-family-details-Big-Brother-database.html

Tens of thousands of politicians, celebrities and local bigwigs will be able to keep their addresses and details about their families off the Government's new children's database, it was revealed yesterday. They will be allowed to withdraw everything but their children's names, sex and ages from the controversial computer record.
(This is so that the "higher class" doesn't have to be exposed to the same vaccines, same drugs, same conditions that the "lower class" does. It's meant to separate the lower/middle classes from the higher classes and create a scientific dictatorship based on a "caste system")
Powerful and influential parents who believe they will be in danger from others who may be 'hostile' will have their details struck off the ContactPoint database along with domestic violence victims and those in witness protection programmes.

But the great majority of ordinary families will be compelled to display their contact details alongside information about their children and their schools, doctors and social workers.

(In other words, they're admitting that these systems of control are FOR YOU, not them or their kids, JUST YOU)
The scale of the get-out provoked further concerns about the security of the database. Nearly 400,000 individuals will be able to look at information on ContactPoint, including council staff, health workers, police officers, and even staff of voluntary groups and charities who have passed criminal records checks.

Jill Kirby of the centre-right think tank Centre for Policy Studies said: 'This is a clear admission by the Government that ContactPoint will not be secure.

'It is not surprising that public figures will not want their addresses or details about their children on it. But why should they have different rules from the rest of us?'
(Because that's the definition of a caste society)
Shami Chakrabarti of the Liberty pressure group said: 'If you feel you need to shield one group of children, it throws doubt over everyone's security. Every child should be shielded from this database.'
Henry Porter of the Convention on Modern Liberty said: 'This gives the lie to every claim they make about security. It is going to be insecure.

'We have a government that wants to track our every move, store and share our data, fingerprint our children, retain our DNA, hack our computers, log every email internet connection and phone call.'

Ministers say ContactPoint will help teachers, doctors, police officers and social workers find out rapidly whether other organisations have involvement with a child.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: 'All ContactPoint records are extremely secure whether or not they are shielded.' Decisions on shielding 'will be taken on a case by case basis'.

[Godfather77]

Lords: rise of CCTV is threat to freedom
Friday 6 February 2009
Full article:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/06/surveillance-freedom-peers

The steady expansion of the "surveillance society" risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today.

The peers say Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency.

The report, Surveillance: Citizens and the State, by the Lords' constitution committee, says Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV, with an estimated 4m cameras, and in building a national DNA database, with more than 7% of the population already logged compared with 0.5% in the America.

The cross-party committee which includes Lord Woolf, a former lord chief justice, and two former attorneys general, Lord Morris and Lord Lyell, warns that "pervasive and routine" electronic surveillance and the collection and processing of personal information is almost taken for granted.

Although many surveillance practices and data collection processes are unknown to most people, the expansion in their use represents "one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of the second world war", the report says. The committee warns that the national DNA database could be used for "malign purposes", challenges whether CCTV cuts crime and questions whether local authorities should be allowed to use surveillance powers at all.

The peers say privacy is an "essential prerequisite to the exercise of individual freedom" and the growing use of surveillance and data collection needs to be regulated by executive and legislative restraint at all times.

Lord Goodlad, the former Tory chief whip and committee chairman, said there could be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about an individual being recorded and pored over by the state.

"The huge rise in surveillance and data collection by the state and other organisations risks undermining the long-standing traditions of privacy and individual freedom which are vital for democracy," he said. "If the public are to trust that information about them is not being improperly used there should be much more openness about what data is collected, by whom and how it is used."

The constitution committee makes more than 40 recommendations to protect individual privacy, including the deletion of all profiles from the national DNA database except for those of convicted criminals and a call for the mandatory encryption of personal data held by public and private organisations that are legally obliged to hold it.

But the report is silent on proposals from Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, for a "superdatabase" tracking everybody's emails, calls, texts and internet use and from Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to lower barriers on the widespread sharing of personal data across the public sector.

[Godfather77]

Police officers 'should patrol every school'
06 Feb 2009
Full article:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4538019/Police-officers-should-patrol-every-school.htm

Every state secondary school should get its own PC to help improve behaviour and cut truancy, it was claimed.  The plan forms part of new reforms forcing every school to join a so-called Behaviour Partnership.

Under the plan, a number of local schools work together to deal with indiscipline and improve attendance.

Sir Alan, head teacher of Seven Kings High School, Ilford, Essex, who is carrying out an ongoing review of behaviour, said it was "unrealistic" for all individual schools to be allocated a police officer, but insisted it was a "realistic expectation" for one to be assigned to each partnership.

At the moment, around 5,000 schools – one in five – have their own PC. Officers intervene when children step out of line, advise pupils and teachers on issues such as drug abuse or bullying and patrol the school grounds.

School joining Behaviour Partnerships must also share pupils expelled from neighbouring comprehensives.  The move comes amid claims some schools bar large numbers of unruly pupils to boost their positions in league tables.

Sir Alan's report, which looked at the link between behaviour and special educational needs, found that while many schools showed "exemplary practice in identifying pupils" with learning and emotional problems. These children are nine times more likely to be expelled from mainstream school, he said.

Sir Alan warned there was "too great a degree of variation of performance" when dealing with pupils with special needs.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said: "Sir Alan's review is about prevention, it's about ensuring schools have the powers and support they need to tackle problems before they become crises."

According to official figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats, more than 30 per cent of pupils have been excluded from 127 schools in England.

[Godfather77]

Town hall threatens father with £2,500 fine for flying flag to welcome soldier sons home
06th February 2009
Full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1137682/Town-hall-threatens-father-2-500-fine-flying-flag-welcome-soldier-sons-home.html

A proud father was threatened with a £2,500 fine when he flew the England flag to welcome his sons home from guarding the Queen.  A pernickety council official warned he faced a huge fine - because the flag pole was at the wrong angle.

The 40-year-old gas engineer of Millfield, Sunderland, said he received a letter from Sunderland City Council following a complaint by a member of the public. He said: 'It said that I'm allowed to fly the flag vertically, but not horizontally.

'They said the way I have it now means it is classed as advertising, so I need to have a licence. And if I didn't obtain one, it meant I could be paying a maximum £2,500 fine. 'I would have laughed, had the whole thing not been so serious.'

Sunderland City Council have now admitted they were in the wrong because the latest regulations exclude national flags.

'At first we thought it needed consent,' said planning chief Phil Barrett. 'We have now decided the flag can stay. 'We will be writing to Mr Smithson and apologising for any upset the letter has caused

[Godfather77]

Government plans travel database
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Full article:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7877182.stm

The government is compiling a database to track and store the international travel records of millions of Britons. Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years.

The government says the database is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. But opposition MPs and privacy campaigners fear it is a significant step towards a surveillance society.

The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details of travellers.

Big Brother

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "The government seems to be building databases to track more and more of our lives.

"The justification is always about security or personal protection. But the truth is that we have a government that just can't be trusted over these highly sensitive issues. We must not allow ourselves to become a Big Brother society."

A spokesman for campaign group NO2ID said: "When your travel plans, who you are travelling with, where you are going to and when are being recorded you have to ask yourself just how free is this country?"

The e-Borders scheme covers flights, ferries and rail journeys and the Home Office says similar schemes run in other countries including the US, Canada, Spain and Australia.

[Godfather77]

Secret police unit set up to spy on British 'domestic extremists'
07th February 2009
Full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1138755/Secret-police-unit-set-spy-British-domestic-extremists.html

A secret police intelligence unit has been set up to spy on Left-wing and Right-wing political groups.
The Confidential Intelligence Unit (CIU) has the power to operate across the UK and will mount surveillance and run informers on ‘domestic extremists’. Its job is to build up a detailed picture of radical campaigners.

Targets will include environmental groups involved in direct action such as Plane Stupid, whose supporters invaded the runway at Stansted Airport in December. The unit also aims to identify the ring-leaders behind violent demonstrations such as the recent anti-Israel protests in London, and to infiltrate neo-Nazi groups, animal liberation groups and organisations behind unlawful industrial action such as secondary picketing.

The CIU’s role will be similar to the ‘counter subversion’ functions formerly carried out by MI5. The unit is being set up by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and will be based at Scotland Yard in Central London.

[Godfather77]

Big Brother cameras grow big ears
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Full article:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7886656.stm

Security cameras have long been a fact of Scottish life, viewed with relief by many communities and with suspicion by civil libertarians. But what if they were listening to you as well? It has already happened in Glasgow.

A Dutch company called Sound Intelligence carried out a two week long trial in a busy city centre street.  They stress that their system, called Sigard, does not record conversations. It listens not to what is being said but how it is being said.

At the company's headquarters in the Dutch city of Amersfoort, Bram Kuipers explained that Sigard was listening for the changes that affect the human voice in an aggressive situation.

Sound Intelligence say Sigard is able to discriminate between the sound of aggression and other, everyday loud noises like passing trucks and car horns. Kuipers demonstrated this by clapping his hands. A display screen noted the sounds but took no action. Then he shouted aggressively. This time an alarm sounded and a CCTV camera spun round to look directly at the source of the shouting.

Such systems are already in everyday use on the streets of several Dutch towns and cities. The company said it also has uses in potential flashpoints like prisons and benefits offices. There are hopes eventually to sell Sigard in other markets - hence the Glasgow trial.

"We installed a couple of microphones in one of the main streets of Glasgow," Kuipers said. "It's working. We detected aggression and it's currently under evaluation."

Sigard is one aspect of what can be considered the next generation of CCTV technology. Other innovations are also on the market, among them talking cameras and systems to detect suspicious behaviour patterns.

[Godfather77]

£46m taxpayers' bill for companies to store web use details
Friday 13 February 2009
Full article:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/13/data-storage-privacy-home-office

• Firms must keep phone and email information
• Campaigners say move is invasion of privacy

Taxpayers face a £46m bill for the cost of communications companies storing details of all personal email and internet use, the Home Office has revealed. The introduction from April of a requirement on internet service providers to keep details of personal internet use follows a 2006 EU directive on data retention agreed after the 2005 London bombings.

Many British communications companies have kept customers' data on a voluntary basis but said they would only comply with a mandatory requirement if the government was prepared to pick up the bill. The move towards compulsory data retention represents a major step towards the creation of "super-database" to track all phone, email, text and internet use.

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is expected to publish a paper this month on the new database as part of the government's "interception modernisation programme". The Home Office says the data being stored is not the content of emails, texts and phone calls but the traffic and location data and other details needed to identify a subscriber or user.

Ministers say the data is needed to enable police and national security investigators to identify suspects, examine their contacts, establish relationships between conspirators and place them in a specific location at a certain time. The data is used to build up a profile of the suspect, and can be used to disrupt a criminal enterprise or terrorist operation, or in a prosecution.

The Home Office admitted in an assessment published this week that the use of data in this way involves interference with personal privacy but said it was balanced by the benefit to investigations by the police or security services. The use of such data is governed by safeguards in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which says it must not be disproportionate and must consider the privacy of people who are not the target of the investigation but whose communications data may be involved.

A draft parliamentary order published this week implementing the change said it was needed to ensure internet records remain available for long-running investigations such as murder, serious sexual offences and terrorism.

The Home Office estimates internet and telephone companies will need to spend £30m to design, develop and set up the facilities they need to store the data for 12 months. The system will cost a further £2m a year to run, giving a total cost of £46m over the next eight years.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "If this sounds expensive just wait for the government's proposed Central Communications Database. £12bn would be spent on recording every email, text message and phone call. The waste of public money is sickening enough without the devastating cost to our personal privacy."

[Godfather77]

Revealed: the full extent of Labour's curbs on civil liberties
Friday, 20 February 2009
Full article:- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-the-full-extent-of-labours-curbs-on-civil-liberties-1627054.html

The full extent of state powers to detain people without charge, cover up Government errors, hold the DNA of the innocent and share personal data between public bodies has been revealed in a devastating analysis of the erosion of civil liberties in Britain over the past decade.

Almost 60 new powers contained in more than 25 Acts of Parliament have whittled away at freedoms and broken pledges set out in the Human Rights Act and Magna Carta, according to a new audit of laws introduced since Labour came to power in 1997.

The dossier, compiled by the Convention on Modern Liberty, criticises police powers to detain terror suspects for 28 days without charge, new stop-and-search powers handed to police (allowing them to stop people without reason at airports and other designated areas), and restrictions on the right of peaceful protest.

It is the first time such a picture of the erosion of rights under Labour has been published. The rise in surveillance in Britain is also documented, including new laws allowing individuals to be electronically tagged, and the legal interception of letters, emails and phone calls.

Control orders, designed to confine terrorist suspects who have not been found guilty, are also cited. The orders, created under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 2005, can include the power of house arrest and electronic tagging.

"The right to privacy has been eroded, perhaps permanently, by broad powers to intercept, collect, store and share our private information," the dossier states.

The Coroners and Justice Bill, currently going through Parliament, is accused of seeking to hand the state the power to prevent embarrassing revelations of Government failure becoming public. Coroners are currently able to criticise the Government and any of its agencies that cause a death. But the Bill would hand the state new powers to suspend inquests, or force them into secret. It would also allow Government agencies to share personal data.

Henry Porter, one of the organisers of the Convention on Modern Liberty, said that there was "little doubt that there is a crisis of liberty in Britain".

"We needed an account to show the legislative programme that swept away many centuries-old rights and transferred so much power from the individual to the state actually existed," he said. "We now have that evidence [and can] oppose what is happening to one of the world's oldest democracies."

[Godfather77]

Buying some wine? Spy cameras will be watching
21st February 2009
Full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1151505/Buying-wine-Spy-cameras-watching.html

Big Brother CCTV cameras are to be fitted inside shops and supermarkets on the orders of the state to keep track on anybody buying alcohol.  A law is being quietly pushed through Parliament giving councils the power to order licensed premises to fit the surveillance cameras. Pubs will also be covered.

The footage of people innocently buying a bottle of wine in a shop or a pint of beer in a bar must be stored for at least 60 days, and be handed over to the police on demand.

Cars are also automatically monitored using cameras that check registration plates. Now shops and pubs will also be covered.

The measures form part of the Policing and Crime Bill, but have not been highlighted by Ministers. Under a code of conduct, which will be enforced by the Bill, any business that intends to sell alcohol will have to agree to install the cameras.

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID privacy campaign, said: ‘We are already a country with more CCTV cameras than anywhere else in the civilised world, but this law is systemising the surveillance of a nation. People will be treated like suspects wherever they go.’

Earlier this week, a law came into force which carries a maximum ten-year jail term for anybody taking a picture of a police officer if it is ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

[matrixcutter]

Andrew Gilligan
This is the guy who exposed the fact that Iraq's capabilities had been "sexed up" - the "classic" example of the exaggeration was the dossier's claim that Iraq was able to deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes.  Gilligan's source was one of the world's foremost biological weapons experts, Dr David Kelly, who was subsequently murdered, or "suicided".


Here comes Big Brother Britain – now stand up and fight for liberty
Andrew Gilligan
26.02.09

YOU probably remember the famous lines of the anti-Nazi priest Martin Niemöller. First they came for the communists, he said, and he didn't speak out because he wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and he didn't speak out because he wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and he didn't speak out because he wasn't a Jew. Finally, they came for him, and there was no one left to speak out for him.

Britain will never be Nazi Germany. But in our steady march towards a police state, this could be something of a Niemöller moment. Until recently, perhaps even until now, New Labour ministers' mocking claim that civil liberties were a concern only for the "dinner party crowd" had some truth.

Ordinary people - the white ones, anyway - tended to approve of "crackdowns", ID cards and the rest. They believed nobody would ever come for them. These were measures against troublemakers, minorities, guys with beards and funny names. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.

But now they aren't just coming for other people. They're coming for everyone. They're coming for the innocent. They are coming for you.

In a report published yesterday by the Institute for Public Policy Research, Sir David Omand, Whitehall's intelligence and security co-ordinator in the run-up to the Iraq war, discusses the active government proposals for "data-mining", where the private and personal data of everyone in the country - telephone records, emails, shop transactions, our very movements as tracked by number-plate recognition cameras and CCTV - is fed into giant computer banks to be analysed for "suspicious" activity.

"Such sources have always been accessible to traditional law enforcement seeking evidence against a named suspect already justified by reasonable suspicion," says Omand. However, "application of modern data mining and processing techniques does involve examination of the innocent as well as the suspect to identify patterns of interest for further investigation ... Finding out other people's secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules."

Privacy, in short, if Sir David and his colleagues like the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith have anything to do with it, is over. He even says so ("modern intelligence access ... may have to be at the expense of some aspects of privacy").

Omand's paper is a model of the confusion that governs our new security state. He talks of safeguards but proposes only "a set of guidelines". He believes that the sacrifice of privacy is "greatly preferable to ... derogating from fundamental human rights". But under the European Convention, privacy is a fundamental human right and though there is a national security exception, this has been narrowly interpreted by the courts.

He speaks of the importance of maintaining "public trust in the essential reasonableness of UK police, security and intelligence activity". In the very week that British agents are revealed as apparently complicit in torture, talking about their "essential reasonableness" must surely be some sort of deep mandarin irony.

Omand speaks of the new electronic trawling-net as a means of countering terrorism but as he admits earlier in the paper, the Government has quietly redefined "national security" to include large numbers of threats (such as organised crime) which are not terrorist and which do not threaten our national security at all. We all know how anti-terror powers have already been used to spy on families suspected of cheating in their applications for a school place; Sir David's "guidelines" seem unlikely to protect us against that sort of abuse.

Indeed, it is hard to argue that even terrorism seriously threatens our security as a nation. In the past decade, terrorists have killed 146 people in the UK (87 of them in Northern Ireland and almost all the rest on 7/7), a decline of 88 per cent since the 1980s. Attacks may be deadlier but they are far, far less frequent; in the more than seven years since 9/11, a time of unprecedented Western-Muslim tension, there have been just two "al Qaeda" attacks causing loss of innocent life in the entire Western world. In Britain, hospital superbugs kill more of us every four days than al Qaeda has managed in its entire existence.

It is doubtful indeed whether the new powers will reduce the frequency of such attacks. They will simply swamp the agencies with unmanageably large amounts of data. The Government is adding an enormous haystack to its collection of needles. Besides, any terrorist worth the name will be careful not to leave an electronic trail or will leave a false one: it is only the innocent who have anything to fear.

That this is a measure specifically targeted at the innocent, and at our privacy, may finally be enough to stir the British public. As a people we have traditionally never been that bothered about "civil liberties" but a million leylandii hedges testify how strongly we feel about privacy. To attack it is to assault the G-spot of Middle England.

Things are stirring already: this Saturday, in London and across the country, an event called the Convention on Modern Liberty will represent perhaps the most concerted coming-together yet by people concerned about the destruction of our democratic way of life. (I am speaking at it, on press freedom - seriously threatened by the new database. If no communication is private, no confidential source will ever speak to a journalist again.)

The simple fact is that some things are worse than terrorism, and the Big Brother database is one of them. Even in the highly unlikely event that it could work, even if it could help reduce attacks, I would rather keep my privacy and take my chances. I would rather run the absolutely minute risk of being blown up than have my privacy blown away.

Throughout our history, we have always believed that liberty is worth some risk. In the Second World War, millions risked their lives for liberty; hundreds of thousands gave their lives. Now, when the risk is by comparison so much smaller, the death toll so comparatively tiny, we are shamed and surprised by our rulers' surrender to repression.

---

Related articles:

Privacy sacrificed in war on terror, says spy chief
Better pay out to Qatada than lose our freedoms
MI5 'used James Bond clause over the torture of detainees'

-----

Alan Watt discussed this article in the following mp3:

Feb. 26, 2009
Alan Watt "Cutting Through The Matrix" on RBN (ads removed):
Propaganda and Lies Now Privatized:
"Daily News Scrolls Past Your Eyes,
Stating Institutions Now Privatized,
While Same News, in All Hypocrisy,
Proclaims the Benefits of Democracy,
Where We are Free, Yet Every Letter
Is Recorded for Any Sign of Terror,
Tax-Funded R&D into Private High-Tech
With its Monitoring Makes Us All Suspect,
Learn from Children, They Want to Know
What the World's About, What Makes It So,
Don't Get Beat Down, Don't Bow So Low,
If Something Stinks, Just Say No!"
***Dialogue Copyrighted Alan Watt - Feb. 26, 2009 (Exempting Music, Literary Quotes, and Callers' Comments)
***LISTEN / DOWNLOAD

Topics of show covered in following links:
"Here comes Big Brother Britain - now stand up and fight for liberty" by Andrew Gilligan (thisislondon.co.uk) - Feb. 26, 2009.
"U.S. may need a larger Afghan troop increase: experts" by David Morgan (reuters.com) - Feb. 13, 2009.
"Oops. We overlooked 193,000 square miles of ice" (iceagenow.com) - Feb. 19, 2009.
"Japan's boffins: Global warming isn't man-made" by Andrew Orlowski (theregister.co.uk) - Feb. 25, 2009.
"Blair's son 'drunk and incapable' " (news.bbc.co.uk) - July 6, 2000.
"Fluoride Will Be Added To City Tap Water" by Thomas Moore (news.sky.com) - Feb. 26, 2009.
"Sir Fred Will Not Forego £16.6m Pension Pot" (news.sky.com) - Feb. 26, 2009

[Godfather77]

Is this what it has come to in order to get our voices heard? 

Man rushed to hospital after setting himself on fire outside Parliament
28th February 2009
full article:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1157683/Man-rushed-hospital-setting-outside-Parliament.html

A man was taken to hospital yesterday after setting himself alight outside the Houses of Parliament.
Police and ambulance crews were called to Parliament Square, which faces the Palace of Westminster, at around 4pm.

The area is popular with demonstrators but it is not known at this stage if the injured man was a protester.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'We were called at around 4pm to a man ablaze in Parliament Square. 'He has been taken to a south London hospital.'

The man is believed to be in his 40s, police said.

[Godfather77]

Government 'using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties'
Saturday 28 February 2009
Full article:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/28/civil-liberties-government-law-courts

The government and the courts are collabarating in shaving away freedoms and pushing Britain to the brink of becoming a "database" police state, a series of sold-out conferences across the UK heard today.

In a day of speeches and discussions, academics, politicians, lawyers, writers, journalists and pop stars joined civil liberty campaigners to issue a call to arms for Britons to defend their democratic rights. More than 1,500 people attended the Convention on Modern Liberty in Bloomsbury, central London, which was linked by video to parallel events in Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff and Cambridge.

They heard from more than 80 speakers, including the author Philip Pullman, musicians Brian Eno and Feargal Sharkey, journalists Fatima Bhutto, Andrew Gilligan and Nick Cohen, and the editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger. Other speakers included Lord Bingham, the retired senior law lord, Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, and the human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy.

In her speech, Kennedy said she felt fear was being used as a weapon to break down civil liberties.

"There is a general feeling that in creating a climate of fear people have been writing a blank cheque to government. People feel the fear of terrorism is being used to take away a lot of rights."

She said voters were anxious that their communities were "being alienated" by the use of powers that were originally designed to protect national security but were now being used outside that remit. Now was the time for the electorate to make its feelings known to government, before the next election.

She said: "People are fearful of the general business of collecting too much information about individuals".

High on the list of concerns of many at the convention were the recent allegations against the British security services by the Guantànamo Bay torture victim Binyam Mohamed, plans for ID cards, DNA databases and surveillance powers being used by civil servants as well as the government.

The Conservative MP David Davis, who resigned from the shadow cabinet in order to fight a byelection on a civil liberties platform, gave the final keynote speech of the day. He told the Observer that he believed the danger of a police state was a very real one and that the justice secretary, Jack Straw, was leading a "piecemeal and casual erosion" of freedom in the UK.

"There has been a tide of government actions which have put expediency over justice time and time again. The British people wear their liberty like an old comfy suit, they are careless about it, but the mood is changing. Last year 80% of people were in favour of ID cards, now 80% are against.

"There is a point of reflection that we are reaching. The communications database which is planned to collect every private text and phone call and petrol station receipt will create uproar."

He said the fact that people had paid £35 to attend the event was a real sign that people were waking up and getting irritated by the threat.

"We are getting on the way to becoming a police state and the surest thing I do know is that by the time we are sure we are, then it will be too late."

Britain's judiciary came under fire from many speakers. A panel of leading journalists accused the courts of helping quash free speech. They agreed that libel law was being manipulated by "dodgy characters" from all over the world who sought legal redress against valid investigative journalism in UK courts.

"Most of this is hidden from public view," said Rusbridger, who complained that British lawyers' fees were 140 times more expensive than in the rest of Europe, creating impossible dilemmas for journalists on newspapers already suffering from dropping sales and advertising revenues.

Gilligan, of the Evening Standard, said the planned communications database would bring an end to privacy and with it "an end of journalism". He pointed out that the only arrest in the case of the illegal shooting to death by police of the Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was that of a journalist who revealed that police statements were untrue.

"This is a very worrying time," he said. "We are already witnessing the last days of local journalism; local papers are closing down, local reporters don't have the time to go out on stories." Newspapers and indiviuduals needed to start "getting angry", he said.

The Convention on Modern Liberty, sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, openDemocracy, Liberty, NO2ID and the Guardian, was launched as an umberella campaign last month under the statement of purpose: "A call to all concerned with attacks on our fundamental rights and freedoms under pressure from counter-terrorism, financial breakdown and the database state".

[lord edward coke]

The banks have corrupted parliaments and courts in order to achieve their seemingly invincible position. Through the parliaments, banks have set in place legislation which form the blue print and provide the means to realize their goal.

However, such legislation can only be enforced through the courts where, if justice were to prevail, bad laws would be vetoed and rejected in fair trials or tribunals. That is why the banks have to have dominance over the courts. They do this by firstly controlling the judges and secondly eliminating juries - thereby removing any possibility that the judges may "do right" or that the people may exercise their will.

But there is a chink in the banks' armour - an Achilles' heel. There is a way to smash the banks by proclaiming a simple truth which the banks have swept aside in the implementation of their practice of issuing loan contracts.

The truth is in the meaning of the word, "variable", as found in the Oxford English Dictionary. "Variable" means "uncertain" and "certain" means "not variable". For contracts to be valid under the common law, there must be "certainty of terms" as an essential element. Therefore, all loan contracts in which the banks have incorporated variable interest rates are invalid. Those loans are illegal and the banks are common law criminals.

The judges know this and are concealing this serious offence. This website exposes the incompetence, corruption and treachery in the judiciary.

Magna Carta says, "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, Right or Justice.". Unless the banks can be defeated, such noble principles are gone and the people, having no rights, are merely slaves.

All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing - Sir Edmund Burke

MAXIMS OF LAWS:

Lawyers and Judges like quoting "Maxims of Law" because they like to think that, by doing so, they are showing a superior knowledge and intelligence and that only they are fit and proper persons to run the Courts. What follows will hopefully dispel that myth. Read ON 670k pdf: http://www.rightsandwrong.com.au/MAXIMS.pdf

Latest News: http://www.rightsandwrong.com.au/html/latest_news.html

Press Release: http://www.rightsandwrong.com.au/html/pressrelease.html

The Book: http://www.rightsandwrong.com.au/html/the_book.html

Newsletters: http://www.rightsandwrong.com.au/html/newsletters.html

Links: http://www.rightsandwrong.com.au/html/links.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[matrixcutter]

Schools put 'Big Brother' CCTV cameras in classrooms to monitor teachers' performance
By Laura Clark
Last updated at 7:44 PM on 04th March 2009

Schools are installing CCTV cameras and microphones in classrooms to spy on teachers.

The surveillance technology is being used to check that pupils are being taught well and to expose poor teachers.

But the approach has provoked fury among teaching unions, who say the tactics smack of Big Brother.


Watched: Deputy head Drew Povey observes a lesson at Harrop Fold School

Under the system, special training classrooms have been equipped with 360-degree cameras and five microphones.

Some cameras are so powerful they can pick up what pupils are writing in their exercise books or what's on their computer screens.

Teachers can be given live feedback from senior staff through a concealed earpiece.

The best lessons will be put on to a DVD and used as a training tool for other staff.

Although taking part in the monitoring sessions is voluntary, school heads say they expect the majority of their staff to participate.

But union officials fear reluctant teachers will be compelled to take part.

They claim the filmed lessons could be used to get around existing agreements on how often senior teachers can sit in during lessons.

Under national guidelines, teachers are only allowed to be monitored for three hours a year.

Dr Mary Bousted, head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said she had 'major reservations' about the use of the technology to monitor staff.

'It does seem a bit Big Brotherish,' she said. 'Although schools say that the process is voluntary, it would be quite difficult to stand up and say no if other people are agreeing to it.'

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, said: 'We do not support the use of cameras in this way and see no professional security or educational benefits to such systems.'

Dozens of schools around the country are employing the scheme, including Harrop Fold School in Worsley, Manchester.

Headmaster Antony Edkins insisted he would not be spying on teachers and that monitoring was 'constructive' rather than 'judgmental'.

Mr Edkins said: 'This is not Big Brother in any sense. We are using the technology as a coaching tool. It allows teachers to get the benefit of an extra pair of eyes.

'Having someone in the class can put off teachers. But allowing a coach to remotely watch everything that is going on and give feedback has been really useful. I have used it, both as a coach and as a teacher, and found the feedback was useful.

'A number of staff have volunteered to take part in the coaching and the majority will use it on an ongoing basis but we are certainly not forcing it. There is no point in people doing it who don't feel happy with it.'

Mr Edkins's school is considering expanding the scheme to monitor the teaching of more practical subjects such as music and PE.

The revelation that teachers are observed using CCTV follows a row over the use of cameras to identify and punish children who disrupt lessons.

One primary school came under fire for using surveillance equipment to identify an eight-year-old girl who hid her friend's shoes during a lesson.

[matrixcutter]

Bars introduce ID scanners (video)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7915201.stm

Scanners have been introduced to check the identification of pub-goers in Croydon south London.

[Godfather77]

WHY was a child under one year of age recorded on the database?! Their is no justification whatsoever for this when other facilities are already in place to monitor children who may be at risk. This beggars the question how this came about in the first case and also how many other young children are also recorded on the DNA database?!?

Jacqui-Smith says the Government would (notice she does not say when) 'take 'immediate steps' to remove the profiles of children under-10 from the database'. 

Maybe I am cynical but why do I suspect that they'll just move it to a different database

DNA of one-year-old baby has been stored on Government's database, Jacqui Smith reveals
09th March 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1160710/DNA-year-old-baby-stored-Governments-database-Jacqui-Smith-reveals.html

A baby had its DNA recorded on the national database, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith revealed tonight. 

The information was recorded before the Government announced plans to remove all records of young children from the national DNA database (NDNAD).

The oldest person with a profile on the database was over 90, Ms Smith revealed in a Commons written answer.

She told Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne: 'As at November 26 2008, the youngest person with a profile on the NDNAD was aged under one year and the oldest was over 90 years old.'

In December last year, following a highly critical European Court of Human Rights judgment, Ms Smith announced major changes to the way the database operates.

She said the Government would take 'immediate steps' to remove the profiles of children under-10 from the database.

[DAVIDENGLAND]

Government plans travel database
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Full article:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7877182.stm

The government is compiling a database to track and store the international travel records of millions of Britons. Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years.

The government says the database is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. But opposition MPs and privacy campaigners fear it is a significant step towards a surveillance society.

The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details of travellers.

Big Brother

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "The government seems to be building databases to track more and more of our lives.

"The justification is always about security or personal protection. But the truth is that we have a government that just can't be trusted over these highly sensitive issues. We must not allow ourselves to become a Big Brother society."

A spokesman for campaign group NO2ID said: "When your travel plans, who you are travelling with, where you are going to and when are being recorded you have to ask yourself just how free is this country?"

The e-Borders scheme covers flights, ferries and rail journeys and the Home Office says similar schemes run in other countries including the US, Canada, Spain and Australia.

'Travel plans 'to be tracked'

All travellers departing the UK will have their trip recorded on a database, according to reports.

Passengers leaving from every sea port, station or airport will have to give detailed personal information.

Cross-channel "booze cruise" shoppers, weekend sailors and sea fishermen will be brought under the e-borders system, which will eventually record details of 250 million journeys every year.

The UK Border Agency is bringing in the checks gradually. It is understood that by the end of the year, 60 per cent of journeys made out of Britain will be affected.

Some 95 per cent of people leaving the country being subject to the plans by the end of 2010.

In most cases the information will be provided 24 hours ahead of travel and will then be stored on a Government database a decade.

The changes are part of Government plans to tighten border controls and increase security in face of international terrorism.

Phil Booth from privacy group NO2ID said: "Your travel data is much more sensitive than you might think.

"Given that for obvious reasons we're encouraged not to put our home address on our luggage labels, and especially given the Government's appalling record on looking after our data, it just doesn't seem sensible for it to pass details like this and sensitive financial information around."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090314/tuk-travel-plans-to-be-tracked-dba1618.html


The NO2ID guy is so f**king lame what a waste of space.

[jesqueal]

I told countles people (in the UK) that the UK was heading this way back in 97.

The only response was Mockery and verbal abuse.

Was that under Major or Blair?