The English Guy’s Personal Blog

I wasn’t going to write about this, but then something made me think twice. That was the bit that included my own nation with the ‘endemic surveillance society‘ line indicating what the US has become.

I knew a long time ago about London being Big Brother capital – you are photographed something like 30 times a day travelling through London. Surreptitiously. Or perhaps not even that, quite openly if you know where the cameras are…

The article, “The US is Now an Endemic Surveillance Society“, really puts things into perspective. Having lived in the US for eleven years I always thought (and still do in a way) that it was a fair and free society. Sure, 9/11 changed a lot of things, and excesses of power are everywhere not just in the US or other Western societies. But it’s frightening to know that, as the author points out:

We now share the “Endemic” distinction with China, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and the UK…

Great. The UK ranked with China. That’s like saying your girlfriend is as good looking as your friend’s pet pig.

What’s worse is that Romania of all places is well ranked in terms of privacy and surveillance, with Canada (slipping though) and Greece.

It does seem a bit unjust that those people who ran into and rescued victims of the 7/7 bombings have not been honoured by the people and government, doesn’t it? Sure, people who work their entire lives in science deserves recognition; those who work in the civil service deserve it too, but those who worked hard on the 7/7 bombings behind the scenes at desks are just as deserving as the first rescuers (civilians) – yet they are the only ones who received anything.

The Government needs to recognise that something is wrong here, and do something about it.

Moreover perhaps, Gordon Brown needs to live up to his pledge, as noted by The Times Online:

Brown made the pledge last July at the launch of a book he wrote on heroism, titled Britain’s Everyday Heroes. He said: “It is right that we look at how our honours system can recognise those in our emergency services and members of the public who showed such bravery and heroism in the face of the recent terrorist attacks.”

Brown made the pledge last July at the launch of a book he wrote on heroism, titled Britain’s Everyday Heroes. He said: “It is right that we look at how our honours system can recognise those in our emergency services and members of the public who showed such bravery and heroism in the face of the recent terrorist attacks.”

Seems to me that the honours system focuses on the armed services (which isn’t a bad thing) and those members of society who have high degrees and intelligence, rather than those who exhibit bravery and gallantry.

You really have to laugh at the rhetoric used by politicians – it never changes and yet while it seems so transparent and obviously vacant, it promises something almost tangible; this from the BBC:

Gordon Brown has used his New Year message to say 2008 will be a year of “real and serious changes” in the UK.

The prime minister said combating the threat posed by terrorism was crucial and there would be “measurable changes in public services” over the next year.

I hope that means he’s stepping down, calling an election, and the Conservative Party wins… Mind you, that being said, I would almost accept the BNP winning – they can’t mess things up more than Labour has done.

The “measurable changes in public services” bit, OMG. Does this mean we finally might have a week or two without the Government losing some of our private data? Or perhaps some decent changes for the public in the NHS? Maybe withdrawing our troops from foreign lands and spending that money on housing the homeless?

Nah… what a silly thought.