Scary thing number one – this poster is appearing all over London reassuring the population that they’re safe, specifically on public transport because of all the CCTV cameras around the place. It’s not just the idea as much as the iconography, but then I guess the TV show Big Brother has got the population comfortable with the concept and helped usher in the real Big Brother.
Scary thing number two – despite seeing the poster a number of times over the last couple of weeks I didn’t realise how scary this is until Tom pointed it out.
Discussion (and source of the image) on Samizdata.net
About ten years ago I was a Civic Club President in Houston and we were debating what to do about drivers who ran a red light. Having recently been in Singapore and London I suggested we lobby the City to install cameras at intersections. Wow! I was in a majority of one and sinking fast.
The difference between the US and UK is very much in evidence when it comes to blatant surveillance. Personally I think the UK public has given too much ground to their government. Now this level of surveillance seems to be accfepted as the norm, which, given how little debate there has been, is a crying shame.