FridgeMagnet said:
It's not seriously going to happen; it's just Blair trying desperately for a bit more "legacy", and probably also a bit of the usual scare announcement stuff so that whatever does happen doesn't seem so bad.
Blair's corporate buddies are selling the State as much 'security' crap as they can before he leaves office. My guess is if we asked police if these gadgets will help them solve crime, or prevent crime, or solve the plight of disaffected youth, they'll say 'NO'.
It does confirm what he's repeatedly proved already though, which is that concerns for civil liberties and privacy - or even the concern not to _appear_ like authoritarian bastards - are practically non-existent in the upper echelons of New Labour. Blair's on his way out, but there will be people who've been involved in this who won't be; they're the ones to watch.
You're right - they need watching carefully.
Blair could have lifted this from a 60s Fabian pamphlett
and
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tony_Blair
Already part of the MOD has been split up, following 'the American Model' - first an agency is formed, then it is sold off to (usually) American corporations. Part of the UK's Military Research & Development has been sold to the US Carlyle Group since Blair took power:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QinetiQ
The American Model won't affect SIS though (Security Services MI5, MI6) - instead, private corporations that offer terrorism risk assessment, hostage negotiation, and surveillance are gaining ground in the UK and gaining more business on the back of 7/7 (e.g.Inkerman Group). Instead of using our existing police force, private security firms are now popular in corporate circles. Private security firms have been used recently by two companies who are riding roughshod over political processes and the rule of law (npower, agrexco).
Basically, this looks to be the way the Govt. is heading: breaking up state-run institutions - the Military, the Prisons, the Psychiatric Hospitals, as well as Hospitals, Clinics and Supermarket-style General Practioners (eg. ASDA)
Further worries are that if we allow the State to implement high-tech consumer solutions, derived from obscure think-tankers who have quiet links to various corporations, when the reality that the problems are mainly sociological and can only be solved by people working with and caring for other people, then the State is wasting the taxes given to it by it's citizens and acting as a sales conduit for coroporate business, rather than administering to it's citizens' needs.
We don't need expensive thinktanks or high-tech gadgets to solve our social problems - we need the Govt to work for us - instead of syphoning our taxes away to multinational corporations.
What about pumping billions into community centres and involving those communities in their creation from the word go - getting onto the streets and asking those 'feral' kids what they'd rather be doing?
Attica - we could construct a questionnaire, and get urbanites across the country to get onto the streets in the evening and ask those kids questions about what they want, where they'd rather be - indoors playing pool or outdoors, or watching a movie from a community video library, rather than hanging on the streets, being moved on by twitchy neighbours and disgruntled cops.
The Govt. spend tens of thousands on crap think tanks, and always come up with more and more 'controls', more gadgets, and more laws, never thinking to involve The Citizens how they'd like to see their taxes are invested. The current processes are a sham.
