Nye pointificates (or tries to)
I was thinking about the amount of CCTV cameras in London. According to the bbc website,
The capital is the most heavily surveyed city in Europe with around
500,000 CCTV cameras keeping watch on our movements.
In a normal day you could be caught on camera more than 300 times.
It's hard to know exactly who is monitoring you at any one time,
from Transport for London or the Metropolitan Police, to your local
borough council or a private security firm.
And it's harder still to know whether the images will be shared,
or how long they might be stored.
But a Government report concludes that CCTV only reduces crime to
a small degree and has little or no effect on crime in public transport
and city centre settings.
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I really don't like that. I used to stick two fingers up to the cameras a lot, but they're just so ubiquitous (and that's fairly pointless immature behaviour). In a normal day you could be caught on camera more than 300 times.
I'm not very good at saying what I believe and why. Being off my trolley for 6 years has made it very difficult to keep mental faculties well-tuned, and feeling suicidally depressed for long stretches of time erodes at my opinions. I'm so glad I was able to go to the big anti-war march in the February before the war. I love protests normally, but this one was different. It wasn't just the usual suspects, although of course we were there. Middle England turned out in droves. There were a lot of 'respectable'-looking people. I was glad that so many people cared.
Mainstream politics since 1997 have really pissed me off. I knew Tony Blair wasn't going to suddenly bring socialism in, but I didn't expect the Labour party to go so right-wing and anti-freedom. I listen to Radio 4 a lot and hear such a lot of sense coming out of the mouths of Tories. It scares me! You don't know where you are when the Conservative party has sensible critiques of anti-'terror' and economic inequalities. The gap between rich and poor has actually widened since Labour got in, and the Tories (say that) they don't like it. Labour have brought in some policies that benefit poor families, but poor single people are largely ignored. I really don't know how workers can survive in minimum-wage jobs in London.
I need to read more. There is more to life than Radio 4. I could go to debates and lectures too (I have a lot of spare time). I am a passionate person, but my political position is hazy. I don't think I am, or ever have been, a true anarchist. Maybe it is ok to have different positions at different times in my life; things change. I will NEVER vote tory though!
The capital is the most heavily surveyed city in Europe with around
500,000 CCTV cameras keeping watch on our movements.
In a normal day you could be caught on camera more than 300 times.
It's hard to know exactly who is monitoring you at any one time,
from Transport for London or the Metropolitan Police, to your local
borough council or a private security firm.
And it's harder still to know whether the images will be shared,
or how long they might be stored.
But a Government report concludes that CCTV only reduces crime to
a small degree and has little or no effect on crime in public transport
and city centre settings.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really don't like that. I used to stick two fingers up to the cameras a lot, but they're just so ubiquitous (and that's fairly pointless immature behaviour). In a normal day you could be caught on camera more than 300 times.
I'm not very good at saying what I believe and why. Being off my trolley for 6 years has made it very difficult to keep mental faculties well-tuned, and feeling suicidally depressed for long stretches of time erodes at my opinions. I'm so glad I was able to go to the big anti-war march in the February before the war. I love protests normally, but this one was different. It wasn't just the usual suspects, although of course we were there. Middle England turned out in droves. There were a lot of 'respectable'-looking people. I was glad that so many people cared.
Mainstream politics since 1997 have really pissed me off. I knew Tony Blair wasn't going to suddenly bring socialism in, but I didn't expect the Labour party to go so right-wing and anti-freedom. I listen to Radio 4 a lot and hear such a lot of sense coming out of the mouths of Tories. It scares me! You don't know where you are when the Conservative party has sensible critiques of anti-'terror' and economic inequalities. The gap between rich and poor has actually widened since Labour got in, and the Tories (say that) they don't like it. Labour have brought in some policies that benefit poor families, but poor single people are largely ignored. I really don't know how workers can survive in minimum-wage jobs in London.
I need to read more. There is more to life than Radio 4. I could go to debates and lectures too (I have a lot of spare time). I am a passionate person, but my political position is hazy. I don't think I am, or ever have been, a true anarchist. Maybe it is ok to have different positions at different times in my life; things change. I will NEVER vote tory though!