"it is nobody’s business
who I am or
what I am doing"
In the newspaper world, August is known as the silly season. The general shutdown means there is so little news around that editors end up running bits of nonsense - singing dogs, alien landings etc - to fill their pages.
No need to go scouting for nonsense this August, however, with these real stories making the UK headlines: local councils spending tax payers money on sending officers out “disguised” as dog walkers and with hidden cameras to catch real walkers failing to clear up their dogs’ mess. Council teams tailing families for weeks to check they really live in the school catchment area they claim.
Just think of the employment opportunities if we continue down this route! What with all the cctv footage to be monitored as well, that’s half the country with a job for life spying on the other half. From nation of shopkeepers to nation of snoopers.
But of course these aren’t just silly season stories, they leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth. Think of Zimbabwe where neighbours are encouraged to monitor each other’s voting habits. Think of the Soviet Union where the most feted role model for schoolchildren was the little boy who shopped his parents and got them executed for anti-soviet sentiments.
The rise in official snooping comes as we learn that the government is considering allowing the police unquestioned access to telephone information (at present, their requests for such information can be challenged) and talk about putting cameras in the back of every airline seat to check if passengers are behaving suspiciously.
Then there’s the forty two day detention issue, of course, which prompted Conservative MP David Davis to resign his seat and stand for re-election.
Just as a country at war has a great excuse for clamping down on dissent at home, there’s nothing like a good terrorist threat - and what better than putative Islamic bombers - as a tool to curtail individual freedoms.
David Davis, opposing the introduction of 42 day detention, was reelected although I suspect that was because he is Tory in a very Tory area rather than because too may people give a toss about Muslims being thrown into jail.
The ensuing debate, however, prompted one joyous moment for Britain when the former head of the Security Service MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller told the Lords that she opposed 42 day detention on the grounds that there is no such thing as complete security and that lengthy detention without trial flies in the face of hard won British civil liberties.
It is heartening indeed that the woman once charged with domestic surveillance and who had the power to order phone taps and letter opening and teams of followers, holds individual freedom dear.
And she is quite right. You cannot have 100% security any more than you can guarantee the safety of your children. Unless, of course, you lock them in their bedrooms for life and never let them walk into town or climb a tree - in which case what kind of sick children would they be? Similarly, how sick is a society where everybody is spied on? Orwell tried to tell us.
Of course, even the freest democracies need some degree of internal surveillance. And, of course, as a mother, I sympathise with parents terrified of the increasing prevalence of knife crime who want cctv cameras on every street corner. But this is a symptom of a sick society not a solution.
Excessive monitoring is a tool of state control. Forcing citizens to carry identity papers is the state’s way of asserting ownership of the individual. Overwhelming citizens with red tape and bureaucracy is another way of making the same point.
In these respects France, despite her reputation for being quick to the barricades, is far less free than Britain.
To ensure that not one child slips unfairly into a better school nor one potential criminal ever remains at liberty you would have to monitor all of the people all of the time. It means challenging the innocent to identify and explain themselves.
The argument used, not only by the organs of state intent on attacking civil liberties, but, too often, by those whose liberties are under attack, is: if you’ve nothing to hide and are doing nothing wrong, why would you mind carrying an ID card or being watched?
But if I have nothing to hide and am doing nothing wrong, it is nobody’s business who I am or what I am doing.
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