Snooping.

So whatever the coalition has said about letting us go about our business is just talk.

A total of 1,343 requests for information on users of Google services including YouTube and email were made from January to June this year – the highest in Europe and the fourth highest in the world.

I’d really like to know what they’re looking for?

Attempts to acquire user data are mainly linked to criminal investigations submitted by police or other agencies. The figures do not cover all government requests and Google said it may add more categories as its tracking methods improve. Google said that ‘data requests’ cover a vast number of circumstances.

Who are those other agencies that are referred to? Is it your local council, the taxman, or one of the myriad of quangos?

And

Authorities also made 48 separate requests to the search giant to remove content in the first six months of 2010.

Did they succeed, and if so, what was the content? Someone slagging off some faceless bureaucrat (Rachael Noxon of Medway Breathes springs to mind), or just one of the constantly offended brigade?

CCTV. FAIL.

 

A good article from over the pond on the failure of CCTV to make us anymore safer. In fact it goes on to propound that in fact they make us less safe.

Although it's comforting to imagine vigilant police monitoring every camera, the truth is very different, for a variety of reasons: technological limitations of cameras, organizational limitations of police and the adaptive abilities of criminals. No one looks at most CCTV footage until well after a crime is committed. And when the police do look at the recordings, it's very common for them to be unable to identify suspects. Criminals don't often stare helpfully at the lens and -- unlike the Dubai assassins -- tend to wear sunglasses and hats. Cameras break far too often.

In London the figures for crime solved by CCTV is 1 in every 1,000 cameras. Not a very good success rate I would have thought. And those cameras cost the taxpayer £200 million.

Source

And although a police officer on the street can respond to a crime in progress, someone watching a CCTV screen can only dispatch an officer to arrive much later. By their very nature, cameras result in underused and misallocated police resources.

I think that the £200 million would have been better spent on recruiting a few more Plods.

Full article over on CNN.

A propaganda broadcast on behalf of the nanny state

I'm really fed up with the way they are determined to take all pleasure out of living. The latest shite about to be pedaled.

 

Well another single malt is called for. It might ease the pain of watching that crap.

H/T to Dick Puddlecote

So now they come for the E smokers.

Just received this in my inbox. It's not about health is it? It's all about maximising revenue.

The E-NI/E.Cig Market is under direct threat from government legislation that would make the Selling of nicotine containing products illegal.

Please see the link for full details on the MHRAs Public consultation Document (MLX 364): The regulation of nicotine containing products

HOW WILL THIS LEGISLATION, IF PASSED AFFECT YOU! 

1. As from the 21st June 2010 all selling of un-licensed nicotine products (E.liquids, Pre Filled Cartridges Containing Nicotine) will be banned. Companies such as The Electronic Cigarette Company and Totally Wicked would be shut down by Trading Standards.

2.It will leave you with no other option but to either start smoking again, go cold turkey or buy risky nicotine products from overseas.

WHAT YOU CAN DO?

There are a number of pro-active steps you  AS AN INDIVIDUAL can take.. Please do not let apathy overtake you…We aren’t.

1. Write a full Testimony in long hand of how E-Nis/E.Cigs have helped you, The health benefits, the Emotional Benefits, Benefits to your family and friends, the cost savings. In this testimony highlight the effect this ban would have on YOUR life. Be accurate, forthright and rationale. Upload and then Email a signed and dated copy to accounts @ @theelectroniccigarette.co.uk

2. Send  a hardcopy via recorder delivery letter to Amanda Bryan, MHRA, Room 14-212, Market Towers, 1 Nine Elms Lane, London, SW8 5NQ

3. Sign this online petition and add your comments. http://www.petitiononline.com/vaping/petition.html

4. Respond directly to the MHRA via their response to MLX 364 online form

5. Contact your MP and GP, let them know how this ban will impact your health and your life.
Remember your voice is important, we cannot allow this legislation to be passed. It is destructive and ill thought out.
ACT NOW AND DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS.

They really can't leave us alone. Can they.

Please make them stop

As far as I can see from reading this article it doesn't pay you to report anything to the Police anymore.

Mary Cooke, 27, was visited by police after she called 999 to report that she had nearly been run down by a speeding car.

This is what could happen if you do.

Days later, Mrs Cooke received a letter from Staffordshire County Council, warning her of a potential 'referral' for her unborn child. In addition, the council contacted her midwife.

What did she do?

She hadn't finished decorating her hall!

How on earth does it now become a crime? Are we going to have a "decorating officer squad" knocking down our doors for the crime of the wrong colour offense, or the "plumb squad" arresting us for the offence of Showering too long, liable to drain the water pipes"

I give up. What the hell has happened to this country?

Back to the drawing board

Listening to the Today programme this morning, it would appear that the ISA are going to rethink the depths of the new CRB checks for those working with children and vulnerable people.

I would hope that this will be scrutinised more completely by our Politicos and not just nodded through, as would seem to have been the case with the original Bill..

I am not a Paedophile either.

I presume you've all heard about the new database that will be compulsory for more than 11 million people to be registered on.

In case you haven't, its the "Independant Safeguarding Authority, and it's pernicious aim is that every person that comes in to contact with children must be registered. Even if they are just helping out at the scouts, or a regular school run.

The Children's Minister claimed today that millions of Britons must be placed on a new Big Brother-style child protection database to stop a repeat of the Soham murders.

Under the plan parents could face a £5,000 fine for driving their children's friends to a sports event or Cub Scout meeting if they have not been vetted first by the massive new government agency.

An astonishing 11.3million people - one adult in four - are likely to come under the watchful eye of the Independent Safeguarding Authority.

Full article in the Mail

Yes, I'm all for protecting the Cheeldren, but this really oversteps the mark. Who an earth is going to volunteer to carry out any of the regular, taken for granted jobs, that we all carry out on a daily basis?

There is a facebook page just started up. Please join up if you agree.

Bloody BMA.

I know everyone else is ahead of me on this one, but I needed to have my say.

I've just been reading their report and consider that is most definitely a temperance movement in all by name.

Changing these excessively pro-alcohol social norms cannot be achieved by targeting irresponsible drinkers alone. We all have an obligation to balance our collective relationship with alcohol. This does not mean that we should all become abstainers. Many human behaviours carry risk and this commonly adds to their appeal; these risks need to be properly understood and appropriate precautions taken. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) reminds us, alcohol is no ordinary commodity, but a toxic and addictive drug that should be carefully regulated and controlled. Strong
measures are required at a population level to eliminate the unhealthy cues and prompts that serve to encourage alcohol consumption. By far the most important of these is the marketing and promotion of alcohol. At the same time, the choice to abstain from alcohol use should be supported as a viable
and acceptable option.

It's that last line that gives it away.

And this, Here they want to control us like lab rats:

In the case of young people, selective targeting is also likely to make alcohol more attractive by reinforcing its forbidden and adult nature – and smack of double standards. As with tobacco control policies, reducing alcohol-related harm in the UK requires a comprehensive strategy that promotes individual behaviour change across society as a whole and seeks to remove or mitigate the unhealthy and unhelpful influences on that behaviour (Berridge 2007).

More control:

As the leading professional organisation representing doctors in the UK, the BMA aims to promote the development and implementation of comprehensive alcohol control policies.

Of course, think of the children is there as well:

The frequency of heavy drinking by the mother is also associated with the occurrence of a range of completely preventable mental and physical birth defects

Naturally people are drinking more at home. Remember the smoking ban:

Recent years have seen an increasing trend among UK adults toward home-based alcohol consumption.

They still won't admit it:

This trend toward home-based alcohol consumption most likely reflects the lower cost of alcohol in off-licences compared to licensed premises in the UK.

And of course take no notice of studies that don't match the crusade:

Early attempts to measure the impact of alcohol advertising on young people relied on econometric studies,l mostly conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. These examined the correlation between the amount of advertising taking place in a particular jurisdiction (typically in terms of expenditure) and the amount of alcohol being consumed (typically in terms of sales). With one notable exception (Saffer & Chaloupka 2000), these have found little or no evidence of advertising influencing young people, which has led one author to describe the effects as ‘barely measurable’ (Duffy 1989). The fact that they are difficult to measure, however, does not mean that they are minimal or do not exist; it may just reflect inadequate research methods.

I could go on but I won't. If you want to read it all. It's here

Coming to your high street soon

It'll never happen will it?