MP fears Orwellian society

Liberal Democrat MP warns of putting CCTV in small villages

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve 22 May 2007

Liberal Democrat MP Nick Clegg today agreed with claims made this week by a police chief that putting CCTV cameras in rural areas will lead to an Orwellian society.

Speaking on Sunday's BBC Politics show, Ian Readhead, Hampshire's deputy chief constable said he was "really concerned about what happens to the product of these cameras, and what comes next”.

He added: "If it's in our villages, are we really moving towards an Orwellian situation where cameras are at every street corner? I really don't think that's the kind of country that I want to live in."

Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg agreed claiming the implementation of cameras in rural areas would, in time, lead to a Big Brother society. He said: “This Government’s obsession with new intrusive surveillance technologies and apparent indifference about our individual rights has demolished the ancient distinction between guilt and innocence.

“Something [is] wrong when police officers, rather than Government ministers, [are] more concerned about the protection of our customary British liberties.”

This was a similar concern shared by Shami Chakrabarti, director of Civil Rights group Liberty, who said: "Politicians like to present the police as ever hungry for more powers. Yet even the police are concerned that we are losing the value of privacy.

"We are not calling for a blanket ban on CCTV, which we agree can be useful in providing evidence, but we are worried that it is being used as an alternative to putting more police on the streets and that so much of the [police] budget is being put into CCTV when it has not been conclusively proven to be a deterrent."

Clegg also agreed with Readhead calling for a review of the use of speed cameras and for justification into why DNA evidence of suspects was kept. Currently the Government's DNA database contains more than four million samples, including those of 1.1million people who have been arrested but never convicted.

“[The] Deputy Chief Constable is also really onto something when he highlights his concern about the retention of DNA details on thousands of innocent British citizens,” said Clegg.

However, the Home Office and Association of Chief Police Officers have said they will take the concerns of the public into their review of CCTV, in which they will assess how it can be used more effectively.

Results of this will be published shortly, the Home Office has said.

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