Listen to the People 
Give them a uniformSnooping and spying on the population officially condoned and encouraged in UK
Thursday, 14 August 2008 10:02
Sir Paul Kennedy, head of the government's spying watchdog has publically encouraged councils and local authorities to get on with the business of snooping and spying on the UK population by saying that these bodies are not using their powers enough to examine phone bills and call records.
Local authorities and councils are not fit and proper people to have these powers in the first place. Many local councillors are simply busybodies who have nothing better to do with their time than look for a nice little earner in their later years by collecting allowances, and there's nothing this kind of person likes better than poking around in other people's affairs. When they can do it legitimately that's even better because in effect they are getting paid to do it.
We should be asking oursleves why the government gave these powers in the first place, and calling for them to be withdrawn. Do you really want local councillors sending someone round to your door to ask why you made certain phone calls?
These powers were granted as part of anti-terrorism legislation but are being routinely mis-used by councils. The government thinks that any mention of terror and we the population should roll over and let them walk all over us. Stand up and tell your MP and local councillors that they have no business looking at these records. Ministers and government can not be trusted - remember the enormous losses of data?
Airport security fiasco
Monday, 07 July 2008 09:42
We're told that all the checks, CCTV, surveillance, inconvenience and stress is all for our protection and that nothing can go wrong because the staff are doing it all so well.
What a joke!
On my last flight from Manchester to Cork, flying with bmibaby a passenger was stood at the front of the aircraft complaining that someone was already sat in her seat. This doesn't happen all that often. The 'cabin manager' went and asked the seated passenger for their boarding card and checked it only to find that they were indeed in the correct seat.
Only then did the flight staff take the trouble to check the boarding card of the passenger who was complaining. She found that the passenger was actually on the wrong aircraft.
What does this tell us about the staff and airport security in general?
Words like incompetent spring to mind. We're told that all the stress and inconvenience is for our protection, but clearly it's not working. The staff could could not have read the boarding pass at more than one location for this incident to have happened. If it can happen so easily what faith can we put in any of the government's so-called security?
Airport security is about stressing the public and finding out what level of inconvenience and government control they are willing to put up with before it is rolled out in more places. It is about the government exercising control and making a statement about its power over the citizen.
Airport security driving us to our cars
Saturday, 05 July 2008 12:54
An Automobile Association (AA) study has found that 75 per cent of us are intending to use our cars for travel to Europe to avoid the air travel costs and more significantly the stress caused by airport security.
Only 5 per cent consider the UK are a holiday destination on environmental grounds, while Londoners, city folk that they are, find driving less stressful.
Airport security has become very intrusive and stressful. Despite assurances from Gordon Brown saying that we would be able to take two carry-on bags onto aircraft there is no sign of this happening. Gronod Clown was looking for good news to announce, the reality is that security staff still hassle passengers who have even a purse or small camera as well as a bag. This is unacceptable in a free society.
The government response to what are single incidents has been out of all proportion to the real or perceived threat. In reality the government is the bigger threat. To put things into perspective, at the time of writing (July 2008) 18 young people have been knifed to death on the streets of London alone - and that does not count all the other slayings in London and the rest of the UK.
There are no restrictions on what passengers can take onto buses or trains so what is different about aircraft? A fire on a train, particularly as it enters a long tunnel is devastating, with little chance of survival, yet the governments takes no steps to stop us taking our baggage onto trains.
What we see is muddled thinking and more likely the UK government doing what it is asked by George bush.
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