I Spy
So, guess which country invades the privacy of its citizens the most. North Korea? Nope. China? No. The United States? Don’t be silly.
It’s good ol’ Blighty, the United Kingdom.
Since 9/11, but more so since the London bombings in ’05, the government has kicked up its public surveillance to a frightening degree.
They invade your personal privacy more than any country on earth. I mean, all governments keep records on their citizens, but Gordon Brown & Co are recording every minute detail of Brits lives. And all this from a government that loses information easier than car keys, as was demonstrated last year when the personal information of 25 million Britons was literally, lost in the mail. Banking information, National Insurance numbers, addresses, dates of birth – basically all the ingredients needed for a nice bit of identity theft were left out there flapping in the breeze.
Meanwhile, the government thrashed it out in the House of Commons about introducing the most elaborate biometric ID cards in the world, which would infringe on your civil liberties even more. What the hell is this? Nazi Germany?
How ironic that the show Big Brother is so popular in the UK. If you live there, your daily life makes you a permanent Big Brother contestant and you don’t even win shit!
England, yes, little old England, has over 4 million CCTV cameras. That’s one for every 14 citizens. Each person in England is caught on camera over 300 times a day. Re-read that and try to absorb how ridiculous it is.
The London bombers were caught on camera on pretty much every leg of their journey (not to mention all that information The Man has been gathering on every detail of everyone’s lives) and yet nobody stopped them before they blew themselves up, killed 52 people and injured 700 more.
My parents live in Leeds (the north of England) and told me recently that new, talking CCTV cameras have been introduced. So, if the camera spots you littering, it’ll tell you to pick it up, when you get out of your car, it’ll remind you to lock your door.
And guess who the voice of these talking lampposts is? Motherf**king Jimmy Saville! My loathing of Jimmy Saville is well documented. This is supposed to be the latest tool in crime prevention? Nothing is more likely to drive me to a life of crime than a Jimmy Saville CCTV camera barking orders and stalking me.
Oh – the country that protects the privacy of its citizens the most? Canada. Giving those southern states even more reason to hate us.
I Miss London
Despite all of that above, I miss London.
Related posts:
Tags: big brother, fashion, the brits, The Man
