Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

1984

George Orwell got it wrong, but only by about 20 years. We already live in the Big Brother society – and I’m not talking about that dreadful Channel Four reality TV programme that, inexplicably, several of my family seem to like.

I’m talking about what “they” (those in authority) know about “us” (normal people) as we go about our everyday lives.
We are all glad that suspected terrorists have now been arrested. But pause for a moment to reflect on how it happened. It was primarily information received from the public after the publication of those four vivid photos, most of them taken before the bombs were planted. Where did those shots come from? They could only be taken by hidden cameras on buses and tube trains. We all knew that station platform and city centres have elaborate CCTV, but buses and tubes too? When did that happen?

The alleged bomber who escaped to Italy was traced by security forces listening in to his mobile phone calls. They can see us and they can hear us.

We are all glad that we seem to have captured those allegedly responsible for trying to blast dozens of innocent victims into Kingdom Come, but we should not allow ourselves to lose sight of a slightly more sinister truth that is emerging. Almost everything we do or say is capable of being monitored and recorded. Add that to the sum of knowledge already held on each of us: what we spend on our credit cards, where we go on holiday, the car we drive, confidential banking information and much, much more. It begins to add up to a picture of awesome power in the hands of an invisible few.

But who will raise a voice against it when the terrorists stalk our streets? Indeed, the opposite is true – already many are calling for more checkpoints at more ports of entry into our country so that we better know who comes in and who goes out.

All the time our security forces are subject to proper democratic accountability, I guess we have little option but to live with the alarming degree of central control that is now in the hands of those who would keep us safe. But imagine that control in the hands of people whose motivation becomes perverted. It would be a short slippery slope to Orwell’s nightmare society.
We must beat the bombers, but we must safeguard our essential freedoms too.

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, August 09, 2005