As I noted elsewhere, as a result of the attention garnered by the case of Jenny Paton, the woman whose family was the subject of covert surveillance because she was suspected (wrongly) of lying about her chilld's school catchment area, Alan Johnson bowed to significant pressure and adverse coverage last week when he declared that the power of local authorities so to surveil would be restricted.
The irony will not be lost on those who appreciate that, this very week, the very same Home Office has extended powers to search homes, seize cash, freeze bank accounts and confiscate property to councils, quangoes and a plethora of agencies such as the Post Office and Transport for London. No policeman is required for the exercise of such powers, and it is instructive to note that the extension of such intrusive powers to an array of bureaucrats is condemned not only by us but by such organisations as the Police Federation. As Big Brother Watch noted some time ago, this remarkable extension of the Proceeds of Crime Act is even more troubling by dint of the fact that Parliament didn't vote on it - it was introduced by Statutory Instrument.
An uncharitable person would accuse the Government of being underhand, as Ministers declare that they are "cutting back" on draconian powers being granted to unaccountable people at the very moment they extend such powers. I think that a more accurate assessment is probably that Ministers are now so buffeted by the media, are so driven by their bureaucrats' aganda and care so little about the consequences of their policies beyond the hit the soundbite secures in that day's news, that the conflict didn't even occur to them. Either way, the dichotomy is certainly apparent to Big Brother Watch - we can, I suppose, hope that the same has dawned on the Conservative Party, despite the lack of robust response thus far.
In the meantime, all of us who live in these islands, free as we supposedly are, will have to live subject to these powers. We have seen the widespread abuses Councils committed when they were given Ripa powers. Are we really to expect that an even wider collection of bodies will be more responsible with more intrusive powers, which come with a revenue-raising capacity to boot?
