Terrorist Paperboys In Cambridgeshire Little Hitlers Drama

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000) may have proved unfit for purpose, in that, designed to counter terrorism and crime, it failed to stop the July 7 bombings in London (and subsequent actions), but it is proving immensely useful to local authorities in allowing them to spy on constituents for truly heinous crimes such as not having the correct paperwork for paperboys.

No mention of the names of any of the council members or employees responsible turns up in the article, despite the fact these people are there to look after the interests of local people, who also pay their wages and expenses. Here is the page of the Council's own website dealing with enforcement:

2 It is the County Council’s policy that only officers authorized through the delegated powers of Deputy Chief Executives, Directors and Senior Officers can undertake enforcement work.

I don't suppose we shall know the name of the person responsible for instigating the use of this act. Perhaps some civic-minded citizens would like to do some spying of their own in order to make the official's name public?

Lying, bullying, spying and snooping: it's about time we started applying the same tactics towards those in authority all over the country. It's about time we started to disobey and subvert. It is well past the time that we started to make their lives a bloody misery.

Council Use RIPA Powers To Spy On Family

Poole Council have admitted to using powers under the disgraceful RIPA legislation (2000) to spy on a couple to see if they had been cheating the school placement system. Story at the BBC here.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was passed in 2000 to less attention from the British press than a belch in a brewery and was the first of Labour's thoroughly disgraceful moves to destroy the privacy and liberty of the individual. Primarily purveyed as a means to prevent crime and terrorism (isn't that the excuse for all of these measures?) it ends up being used to give disproportionate powers to those that should not have them (eg Poole Council). Details of the legislation here.

The government has also had its wrists slapped by the High Court for dropping the investigation into corruption relating to the Saudi arms deal. Well, that's not going to happen again now that Brown has legislation on the way limiting the powers of the High Court while increasing the powers of his Attorney General. All in the cause of 'national security', of course.