yet another blog

Who remembers this little tale? Of course you do! Cos it was only a couple of days back that I was rumbling on about it.

About how our local Council plans on spending shedloads of public money on a snooping system for use outside schools in the area. In the hope of catching motorists parking illegally who thereby, so the Council claims, endanger the lives of the schoolkids.

(It’s always and inevitably the motorists’ fault of course. When I was a kid I was taught how to behave safely near roads. But that’s another matter entirely. And best I don’t get started on all the other things kids were taught in those days… that no-one seems to have heard about nowadays.)

I picked the story up from one of the local freebie papers, interest aroused by its relevance to a favourite soapbox topic of mine: the increasing surveillance of joe public by various “official” bodies.

I touched upon three general areas of concern about this particular instance. You can read the whole thing for yourself of course as it’s all in the immediately preceding post, but to briefly recap:

• The cost of the scheme, suggesting that this may not be the best or most sensible use of local taxpayers’ money in these difficult economic times
• The possibility of abuse of the system given it entails cameras being deployed in the vicinity of children
• The worrying trend of surveillance creeping into ever more areas of our lives and being regarded as acceptable

Now it could be that my concerns re the second point were misplaced, for it seems there’s a possibility that the kit the Council proposes to deploy may not function as I originally thought, but focus solely upon car registration plates. Maybe. Or maybe not. It’s not at all clear from that first report. And all this new-fangled technology confuses the hell out of me anyway.

Doesn’t change the fact though that whilst joe public’s accepting of various “official” bodies bringing ever-increasing numbers of different types of cameras into play, ordinary innocent photographers are still getting loads of harassment… often by those same “official” bodies.

Well, seems this little yarn has now been picked up by the second of our local freebies, the Bedfordshire on Sunday (of which the pic at the start of this post). And they have been obliging enough to publish the full article on-line as well (unlike the other freebie).

And provided some rather different figures to chew over. Like, for example, quoting an initial cost of £98,250. With an additional cost of £42,800 per year to run the damn system! Hmm.

Moreover, it seems I’m not the only one to be a tad concerned about this little project. Apparently Big Brother Watch has picked up on it too, and sums the whole thing up rather neatly in the following way:

Bedford’s bureaucrats have put more plainly than most their intent to use surveillance to force drivers to stop using their cars. Social engineering via snooping

Yes. Quite so.

(Also published at Adventures of an Idiot)

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Just spotted in one of this week’s freebies (the Bedfordshire Times & Citizen) that the local Council is to splash out £100,000 on yet more snooping devices… adding to the constantly growing list of such stuff that already burdens our over-surveilled society.

Apparently this is a thing called a “Roadflow mobile camera” that they’re proposing to bung in a Council car to patrol outside schools. Not a police car be it noted, but a Council vehicle. Seems the plan is to monitor the parking of vehicles outside schools, with the intention of nabbing motorists that are parking illegally.

They say its to deal with an “anti-social menace” caused by such illegal parking that they say represents an “absolute disregard for the safety of the children.” Ah yes. So its nothing whatsoever to do with the extra dosh (quoted as being somewhere in the region of £2,600-£3,150 per year) that they’re hoping to raise from parking fines?

Well, obviously not. Cos if it were then it’d take (by my possibly faulty reckoning… for I’ve never been very handy with figures) at least 31+ years just to recover the initial outlay. And that’s not allowing for the wages of the people manning it. Or other admin costs. Well, no doubt all the Council Tax payers of the area will be highly delighted by the Council blowing their hard-earned money in this way.

And is the camera likely to last that long, I can’t avoid asking myself. Or will it need to be replaced in, what, say another 5-10 years? At even more expense. Hmm.

Just what’s needed in these difficult economic times.

But, and this is the thing my mind keeps coming back to… these cameras are going to be monitored by Council people are they? Outside schools. Where kids are. So does this mean kids are going to be caught on camera as well? Now I wonder how parents will be feeling about some faceless anonymous Council snooper capturing their kids on camera when parents themselves are all too frequently prevented from or hindered in photographing their own children?

And presumably these anonymous Council people will be fully trained/qualified and, hopefully, trustworthy around children?

In fairness it is mentioned that motorists will be informed of this mobile snooping operation by the erection of road signs at the appropriate places… but how many non-motoring parents will actually notice those signs? Thus being unaware that their kids could appear in camera footage.

What I’m actually seeing here is yet more evidence that our society is encouraging of the deployment of cameras by local authorities, agencies of the State and suchlike, whilst at the same time hindering to an ever greater extent the activities of ordinary innocent photographers.

Unfortunately, the freebie reporting this story doesn’t appear to have included it in their on-line edition so I can’t provide a link to it… not at the moment! But they do invite local residents to contribute their views on the matter via email… just send ’em to editorial(at)timesandcitizen.co.uk

(Also published at Adventures of an Idiot)

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Here we are then. Thursday 6th May, 2010. Polling day for the nation’s General Election.
So am I awaiting with bated breath the outcome of this momentous and exciting occasion; the very cornerstone and foundation of British democracy; the living beating heart of our much-admired political system?

Sitting on the edge of my seat, eyes glued to the television screen as I slavishly follow every twist and turn of this real-life high drama… as I have done on so many former occasions, in my more naive days?

Er… no.

In fact, I can barely summon the interest to speculate even briefly on which particular bunch of rogues will be entrusted with the care of the nation for the next five years.

From which you may presume that I don’t really have a lot of time for politicians… of any flavour, shape, or size.
A disenchantment that has accrued from a lifetime’s experience of watching (quite closely at times) how they behave.
Of listening to their words (so many words) and then measuring those words against their actions. Or, as in so many instances, lack of action.

How can I possibly illustrate the deep contempt with which I regard these ne’er-do-wells, these bunches of grifters, these “trust me I’m a politician” gangs of pocket-lining conniving slimeballs?

An example perhaps. A small one. Very minor in the grand scheme of things, yet oh so typical of the utter rubbish with which we’re bombarded on an almost daily basis.

A little example from my local town in fact, Bedford, some forty or so miles north of London.
A wonderfully picturesque little market town, adorned with some rare examples of incredible architecture and comfortable, homely accommodations.

In which little town we have the Independent candidate, Samrat Deep Bhandari, pushing his campaign forward with the key slogan of “Making Bedford the centre of global growth”.

Yes. That’s right. You’ve not mis-read. Global growth. The centre of.

And that simple little statement is supposed to persuade me to support him, to believe anything else he has to say?
The sad truth is, he’s probably the best of the bunch (well, locally at least). The least conniving. The least devious. The least full of empty words and meaningless phrases.

So, I’ll await with eagerness the forthcoming transition of this town into the absolute centre of global growth.
Thankyou so much Samrat for filling me with such optimism and hopes for a better future.

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General election? What general election? Oh yeah, the one that’s coming up in the not-too-distant future I guess.

Probably explains all those huge political campaigning advertisements I keep seeing everywhere. The one’s promoting all those wonderful brand new policies the political parties are pushing. Those policies that will get us out of all the mess that the… er… politicans got us into.

Couple of examples then. This one, spotted just across the road from Bedford’s County Hall (though I believe its called something else nowadays, ever since they changed the structure of the local government herebouts)…

That’ll be the Tories then, with their brand new “get the country back on its feet” policy of “let’s all trash Labour”.

And then just around the corner, not more than a couple of hundred yards or so away, we have this. Not put out by the Labour Party as such, but by Unison. Nevertheless, the sentiment’s quite clear: let’s help Labour get the country back on its feet with their brand new policy of “let’s all trash the Tories”…

Now if I were going to vote in this forthcoming general election (which I’m not, but that’s another story entirely), this sort of “bash the other lot” sloganeering would be guaranteed to put me right off voting for either Labour or the Tories.

If that’s indicative of their ethics as politicians (which of course it is) then neither party are worth a light.

But then, there’s nothing quite like trying to scare the electorate into voting for you, is there?

Truth is of course, they can’t be pushing their “brand new policies” because in reality its all just the same old same old.
Neither party (and I’m inclined to include the LibDems in this as well) are capable any longer of coming up with truly innovative and imaginative policies and consequently there’s not a lot to choose between any of them.

Moreover, regardless of the “promises” they may make in the run-up to elections we all know it’ll count for nothing as soon as they secure the power they’re so desperately hungering for.

And that of course is what it’s all about. Nothing to distinguish the parties at all nowadays. They’re all just shuffling for the top spot and will say virtually anything to get the voters to put them into office.

Basically, its all a load of bullshit. It’d make a pleasant change to just once hear a politician argue for something they really and genuinely believe as opposed to mouthing off stuff they think people want to hear.
An opinion that comes straight from the heart rather than one that’s been meticulously thrashed out by a committee or moulded by focus groups.

But then, that requires some sort of sincerity. And integrity. And… er… honesty.

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Given that the UK is claimed to be one of the most surveilled countrys compared to other industrialised Western states, with upwards of 4.2m CCTV cameras (about one for every 14 people!) and almost certainly increasing daily, its quite bizarre that there should be such paranoia about folk innocently taking photographs in public places.

Yet there is. A paranoia, moreover, deliberately fostered by State agencies and the Police. (See this post)

What’s even more worrying is when the Police actively obstruct Press photographers, photojournalists and the like, from performing their legitimate and legal function of documenting newsworthy events.
And not just actively obstruct them, but treat them as though they are criminals or even terrorists!

Well, the British Journal of Photography has now decided to help in the fight back against this ridiculous and, it has to be said, sinister situation with the launch of its “Not a crime” campaign.

In their words…

Increasing concerns about terrorism, paedophilia, health and safety, personal privacy and plain old paranoia about pretty much anything Her Majesty’s subjects get up to has resulted in a deep mistrust of photographers.

Police routinely invoke anti-terror legislation to prevent photographers from carrying out their work, and photojournalists are constantly filmed at public gatherings and their details kept on an ever-growing database. Tourists, particularly foreign tourists, are also targeted by police, as was the case with an Austrian father and son recently who made the mistake of photographing a building of an extremely sensitive nature—Walthamstow bus station.
Put simply, Britain has become a no-photo zone, and so if you fail to comply, you may find yourself liable to attack, arrest or harassment. Recognising that Britain is not the only country where such a draconian anti-photographer culture is developing, the British Journal of Photography is beginning an international visual campaign to raise awareness.

Over the next year we hope to gather thousands of self-portraits of photographers – professional and amateur – from around the world, each holding up a white card with the words, “Not a crime” or “I am not a terrorist”.

Check it out now, before its too late and you have to forever mothball your cameras or risk incarceration.

P.S.: The banner heading this post is downloadable in two different sizes from the “Not a crime” campaign website. I’ve also created a new dedicated set on Flickr that I may well add to periodically!

This article’s also been posted on my photography blog

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