Council spying and surveillance Britain

An interesting story was relayed to me this week which I think sadly is a further example of the erosion of civil liberties and the ever growing spying by the state.


A husband and wife who between them run two small businesses, one a nursery and the other a village newsagents. Last week, the council turned up at their private home, and demanded to search through the contents of their bins to make sure that they were not disposing of commercial waste in their domestic wheelie bin.

The officials then decanted the wheelie bin on the driveway and sifted through the contents to their satisfaction. I understand they did clean-up afterwards - after finding nothing.

What exactly were the council expecting to find? Toxic waste? Weapons of mass destruction? It's a nursery and a newsagents they run, not a chemical plant.

And if there were a few newspapers or nappies in their bin does anyone really care? No - I doubt it. Provided that they weren't throwing out more than their allotted amount.

Aside from this being a shocking waste of taxpayers' money, it is an unnecessary intrusion into the private lives of citizens. And checking on your rubbish is not the only way of the council can spy on you. If you are claiming a single occupancy discount on your council tax, the council have the right to come and search your bathroom to check you only have one toothpaste and bedrooms to confirm you don't have clothes for more than one person.

Far far too many local government and government agencies have the right to access your home without permission. And I always believed that old line from The Bill, "You ain't seeing anything without a warrant". I presume that line has now been dropped from the stock phrases...

The DNA database

A rare good piece of news came out of Europe in the last week. Two men who had taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights won their case to have their DNA deleted from the Government's national DNA database. The two men, who had the DNA sampled, one while he was a minor, were acquitted of all charges and have fought a long campaign to have the DNA removed.

The pair contend that the retention casts suspicion on people who have been acquitted or discharged of crimes, and that they should be treated in the same way as the rest of the unconvicted population.

The establishment of this database has been a stealth attack on the civil liberties of the innocent. 850,000 people are on this database who do not have a criminal record, including 40,000 children. Why should innocent persons have their DNA on a criminal records database? If the intention is to create a national database for all citizens, then that debate should be had in parliament rather than this sneaky approach.

As a result of this ruling, it is almost certain that the records of the innocent must now be destroyed, and not a moment too soon.