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 I want to live in a surveillance state. Big Brother, come cast your watchful eye over me and mine. I love you, bro. Seriously, when I saw the outcry over Government plans to gain access to telephone, email and internet, my initial reaction was: “You mean they can’t do that already?” I assumed, somewhat stupidly, that everything we said, typed or viewed was routinely monitored, and then filtered by some giant, super-secret computer tucked away in a heavily guarded subterranean basement of GCHQ: “Hodges has just said he wants to shoot another Liverpool player, sir.” “Oh, he’s always saying that, Jones....

A police force facing savage budget cuts has announced a crackdown on the menace of the mobility scooter driver. Officers have launched a course to combat the scourge of the lawless silver-haired scooter rider as the number of accidents on the roads rise. They may not be joyriding teenagers any more, but officers say pensioners on mobility scooters can be just as dangerous with many being caught drunk or high on prescription drugs behind the wheel.   (edit)   He said: 'People can just buy a mobility scooter, sometimes off the internet or somewhere else, and literally just get...

Fewer people have been killed and injured on roads following a decision by a local council to switch off its speed cameras. Accident data shows that in the first nine months after the devices were scrapped in Swindon, there were 315 road casualties in the area as a whole, compared with 327 in the same period the previous year. In total there were two fatalities – compared with four in the same period previously – and 44 serious injuries, down from 48. The figures were seized on by campaigners who claim speed cameras do little to combat problem driving...

Britain’s network of 6,000 speed cameras could be dramatically reduced after a raft of councils looked set to follow Oxfordshire’s move and switch theirs off. The county’s entire network of 72 cameras will be switched off at midnight tonight after the coalition Government pulled the plug on their funding. The change of heart could usher in a different landscape for Britain’s 33million motorists two decades after the first network was installed. Already, neighbouring Buckinghamshire said it is ‘very likely’ to switch off its cameras, while Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Derbyshire have launched reviews. (edit)  The moves, however, could be just the...

Heads will be forced to list children as young as five on school 'hate registers' over everyday playground insults.  Even minor incidents must be recorded as examples of serious bullying and details kept on a database until the pupil leaves secondary school.  Teachers are to be told that even if a primary school child uses homophobic or racist words without knowing their meaning, simply teaching them such words are hurtful and inappropriate is not enough.  Instead the incident has to be recorded and his or her behaviour monitored for future signs of 'hate' bullying.  The accusations will also be...

Unmanned drones similar to those used in Afghanistan are set to be used in Britain to spy on drivers, campaigners, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, it was revealed today.A group of government agencies led by Kent Police has commissioned arms manufacturer BAE systems to adapt military-style planes for civilian use.The consortium aims to have the drones operating in British skies in time for the 2012 Olympics. The revelations are likely to prompt 'Big Brother' accusations from civil libertarians.   CCTV in the sky: Unmanned drones, similar to this Force Protection Airborne Surveillance plane, are set to be used in the UK...

The television licence enforcers were nothing if not persistent. For five years they pursued 69-year-old Hannah Patricia Humphris with a succession of intimidating missives demanding she buy a licence.   The pursuit culminated with a letter this month threatening her with prosecution and a possible £1,000 fine.  But the TV licensing police had overlooked one crucial fact: Miss Humphris hasn't owned a television since 1978.    Hannah Patricia Humphris doesn't own a television, but is still being pursued by the TV Licencing AuthorityShe got rid of her set that year because it wasn't working properly and, she said, there...

THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant. The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws. The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home,...

CCTV cameras which can 'predict' if a crime is about to take place are being introduced on Britain's streets. The cameras can alert operators to suspicious behaviour, such as loitering and unusually slow walking. Anyone spotted could then have to explain their behaviour to a police officer. The move has been compared to the Tom Cruise science-fiction film Minority Report, in which people are arrested before they commit planned offences. It will also fuel fears that Britain is becoming a surveillance society. There are already 4.2million cameras trained on the public. The technology could be used alongside many of...

Council snoopers to get new powers to seize phone and email records - with taxpayers footing the £50m bill Last updated at 15:11pm on 13.08.08  Tory concerns: Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve Council snoopers will be given even greater powers to pry into our phone, email and internet records  -  landing the taxpayer with a bill of almost £50million.  Town halls, along with the police, security services, health authorities and other public bodies, will have access to ' communication' records of anyone suspected of involvement in even the most minor crime.  The powers, which stem from an EU directive...

Bluetooth Big Brother uses mobiles and laptops to track thousands of Britons Last updated at 12:04pm on 21.07.08    Thousands of people in Bath are unaware their movements may have been tracked through their bluetooth mobiles Thousands of Britons' movements have been covertly tracked by scanners placed in streets, pubs and offices for a technology experiment.  The Cityware project run by the University of Bath has secretly placed scanners around the Somerset city, with the first 10 installed 2006. The scanners pick up bluetooth radio signals transmitted from mobile phones and laptops. In a scene reminiscent of the Will Smith...

'Big Brother' warning over Government database that records EVERY phone call and e-mail in Britain Last updated at 16:09pm on 15.07.08    Cautious: Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warns a 'Big Brother' database would threaten the British way of life A 'Big Brother' database recording every single phone call and e-mail made in Britain would threaten the British way of life, the information watchdog has warned.Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said such a Government-run database would have serious data protection implications.Amid speculation a massive database is already being planned, he declared it would be a 'step too far'.May's draft legislative programme...

CCTV cameras to be used to issue parking tickets Last updated at 20:22pm on 24.03.08    New regulations: Councils will have the power to use video footage to issue fines where it is deemed impractical for wardens to hand out tickets CCTV cameras will be used to enforce parking restrictions and issue tickets under regulations due to come into force next week. Councils will be given the power to use video footage to hand out fines where it is deemed impractical for traffic wardens to issue tickets in person.A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport (DfT) said it would...

Now the taxman gets the power to turn up unannounced to your home and demand to see tax recordsBy BECKY BARROW - More by this author » Last updated at 01:10am on 14th March 2008 Tax inspectors will be allowed to come to your front door under new powers to come into force next year. Posed by model Inspectors will be allowed to make lightning visits to taxpayers' homes, under powers due to come into force next year.  Under the extraordinary new rules, they will be able to turn up unannounced and demand to see tax records. They will not...

New super-cameras will mean no hiding place for drivers who smoke, eat or use a phoneBy RAY MASSEY - More by this author » Last updated at 01:05am on 29th December 2007  Digital speed cameras which capture drivers smoking or eating at the wheel are being introduced nationwide in a new move to hammer motorists.  Drivers will also face fines, bans and even jail for infringements such as driving without a seatbelt, using a hand-held mobile phone or overtaking across double white lines. The hi-tech DVD cameras, which have instant playback, will also be used to provide photographic evidence...

Police hold DNA of 4.5m Britons - adding 1m to database over just 10 monthsBy MATTHEW HICKLEY and KIRSTY WALKER - More by this author » Last updated at 00:55am on 5th November 2007  More than one million people's genetic fingerprints have been added to the police DNA database in only ten months.  The "Big Brother" system, already the biggest in the world, now permanently stores the details of more than 4.5million individuals. The rise is the equivalent of 150 new entries every hour. The database now covers one in 13 of the population - around 7.5 per cent....

Do you fink I'm stupid? Chantelle shows what it takes to make a million as a reality TV starBy JENNY JOHNSTON - More by this author » Last updated at 18:41pm on 13th October 2007 She's on the cover of magazines right now ... but what will happen to Chantelle in ten years? 'I'll probably be wrinkly', she says Chantelle Houghton tells me she is "actually quite clever" four times before I pluck up the courage to ask how she knows this. There hasn't been an awful lot of evidence during our interview, it has to be said, and she...

Big Brother Britain: Government and councils to spy on ALL our phonesBy JASON LEWIS - More by this author » Last updated at 23:31pm on 29th September 2007  Officials from the top of Government to lowly council officers will be given unprecedented powers to access details of every phone call in Britain under laws coming into force tomorrow.  The new rules compel phone companies to retain information, however private, about all landline and mobile calls, and make them available to some 795 public bodies and quangos. The move, enacted by the personal decree of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, will...

'Envirocrime' snoops paid £30,000 just to check your rubbishBy DANIEL BOFFEY - More by this author » Last updated at 22:21pm on 21st April 2007A council is paying plain-clothes snoopers £30,000 a year to track down homeowners who put their rubbish out at the wrong time of the week or in the wrong place. The 'envirocrime' officers are employed to enforce environmental regulations and have the power to fine residents who 'offend'. Ealing Council in West London is spending nearly £150,000 on recruiting and employing four new enforcement patrollers to add to its 23-strong team that already monitors 'waste...

The 250,000 families with a spy in the binsBy STEVE DOUGHTY - More by this author » Last updated at 22:33pm on 16th March 2007 Comments (36) Wheelie bins: £140,000 trial Also see... • Residents revolt against wheelie-bin spies   The Government has paid for the chips to be installed in three areas of Northern Ireland, now regularly used as a testing ground for Labour's plans for the rest of the country. Tories warned that the chips will be used for the first tests of a tax on bins. The chips are used to weigh bins so that householders can...