Are We A Stasi State?

How often do we hear the words 'for our safety and security' dripping from the lips of our political representatives?

The UK is at war in Afghanistan under the pretext and now the British Home Secretary wants police to have access to our phone calls, texts and emails without the 'pressure' of applying for a court warrant.  The justification is that only by having access to our confidential communications can the police and security services keep us safe from criminals and terrorists. The legislation will apply throughout the UK.

As usual those who approve believe in the 'nothing to hide, nothing to fear' adage. Teresa May's almost criminal disregard for our hard won freedoms is extraordinary.

To sweeten the pill Ms May proposes to remove the rights of local councils and other agencies to spy on our emails, phone calls and internet browsing.

When the coalition government came into power Cameron and Clegg vowed to rescind legislation which affected our civil liberties and the power for local government officials to enter our homes and spy on our activities was high on the agenda. It's only now being removed in order to sugar the pill of having greater intrusion into our personal privacy.

On yesterday's BBC Daily Politics programme (at 33 minutes) David Davis put forward a strong and sensible case against this new proposal. I would like to think the majority of MPs agreed with him, but somehow I feel they will pander to Ms May's obsession with acquiring and storing our private information.

After doing a little research in order to write this post, the answer is we already are a Stasi state. Eight years ago the then information commissioner, Richard Thomas, warned that we could be sleepwalking into an East German-style surveillance society. The sleepwalking has ceased because the objective has been reached.

Argyll and Bute council certainly has earned the title this week.

Tweet

An Invasion of Privacy?

It's common knowledge the military use unmanned spy drones in Afghanistan as part of their reconnaissance procedure, but did you know that police in the UK are planning to use them for the 'routine' monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers to name just a few?

BAE systems, which produce a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

The South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE and they reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The Righteous will say this is a great idea. For me it's an invasion of my privacy and a government generated control system which will contribute greatly to labour's social engineering programme. Aren't CCTV cameras enough? Obviously not.

Read more.

Tweet

If You Want a Mortgage, Don't Smoke or Drink

If the above was my home (which it is not), I could be forced to provide detailed information about the amount of money I spend on alcohol and tobacco when I have to remortgage.

According to the Times spending on shoes, clothes and childcare could also be assessed under a new, industry-wide "affordability test". Self-certification mortgages are also at risk of being banned (yes that word again), making it more impossible for those who are self-employed to own their own home. It's never been easy for the self-employed with their irregular incomes to acquire mortgages and they've usually had to pay a higher rate of interest, but now that dreadfully incompetent government agency, the FSA has decided lenders need to be far more rigorous about their financial checks of potential borrowers.

We all know the 'toxic debt' in which banks became involved wasn't all UK based debt - the majority of it was banks buying it from the US thinking they would make a killing, plus the greed of lending to those who very obviously would not be able to keep up payments.

There is a far more serious issue here though. This intrusion on our lives just has to be stopped. How much longer are we going to permit this government to pry into our very private affairs?

This won't stop with mortgage applications, believe me. It will filter down to any applications to government departments. I can see the day when, if you want to start a business and require a loan, your lifestyle will be probed by these faceless suits and one of them will hold your future in their hands. They won't stop at just alcohol and tobacco either. That's just the beginning of this latest social engineering policy.

Why are we just giving away our rights to this degree? Surely there are politicians who will stand up and speak for our freedoms? There will be those who say if you live a good lifestyle you have nothing to worry about - that's not the point. The point is that my life is mine - it doesn't belong to anyone else and how I choose to live it is my decision. There used to be sensible punishments for irresponsibility but no longer.

For the past 25 years or so various governments have broken up our society which used to have moral values and trust. Is it any wonder trust no longer exists in today's society?

Tweet

If You Own a Mobile Please Read

I must thank young Daniel 1974 for discovering this. As most of us know from the middle of July there will be a mobile phone directory which will list every active mobile in the country. This information will be held in the usual style of a 118 directory service and will hold the number for minors and the elderly. The database is unfiltered and obviously there will be companies purchasing call lists which will be available.

The database is said to have over 15m numbers collected from various agencies and companies and also from brokerage firms which buy and sell person information, such as telephone numbers. The information on this database has been purchased in a manner which has satisfied the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) which investigates allegations of breaches into the Data Protection Act.

If you don't want to be part of this directory, you can go ex-directory before the launch of this service by following a few simple steps. It is free. Have your mobile phone to hand before you begin the process which takes less than 2 minutes.

Go to http://www.118800.co.uk/removeme/remove-me.html

Click 'Home' then 'Ex-Directory' in the menu at the top of the page.

Enter your mobile number and the security words which appear on the screen.

This will take you to a new page where you need to enter a 5 digit code which will be sent to you by text a few moments after entering that page.

That's it done. I've managed it so I'm sure anyone can.

Update: I notice this morning that 118 800 have changed their page to state they don't sell numbers etc.

Tweet

Another Freedom Lost

I didn't realise the proposal by the Westminster government for personal web data to be stored comes into law on Monday.  There have been few protests from UK politicians but of course, they will be exempt. 

Mobile calls, emails and website visits of every person in Britain will be stored for a year under sweeping new powers which will, for the first time, place a legal duty on internet companies to store private information, including email traffic and website browsing histories.

This is a gross intrusion of my privacy and I'm not prepared to accept the argument that it is to protect public safety and national security.   Inch by inch this government's plans to monitor everyone's communications are creeping into place.  We need to speak out and stop this.

Tweet