Rispon Avenue

I’m getting out the ol’ soap box and I’m having a rant, today. Be prepared!

I’m ranting about the ludicrous amount of CCTV networks being employed in Britain, which have been shown to be of little value in diminishing the rising rates of violent crime. Now, what are we using these things for if not to deter criminals? Where is this going wrong? It’s mind boggling that the country can have 20% of all the CCTV cameras in the world pointed at it’s own citizens, and yet violent crime rates are still going up!? Doesn’t that just prove that CCTV systems aren’t the answer to all our criminal ills?

There are even growing numbers of CCTV cameras being employed by civilians… I just think that maybe it’s time to settle down. For instance, the former residence of George Orwell, author of 1984 – when the notion of Big Brother was first coined as such – had no less that 32 CCTV cameras installed by the government within a 200 yard radius. That number goes up tremendously if one counts the privately owned CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood, of which there are hundreds. Now, doesn’t that just sound a little crazy to you?

Another thing that has gotten me of late is this Children’s Minister Ed Balls’ idea of putting CCTV cameras into private homes, after the parents have signed ‘behaviour contracts’, to ensure that the children are going to bed early, eating balanced meals, and doing their homework. These families being ones that have had any dealings with social services before. But the odd thing to me is they keep being referred to as ‘anti-social’ as if that’s the worst thing in the world. Balls states that ‘Over 120,000 young people have been saved from getting involved in or being the victims of crime’, and I have to ask, where the hell did you pull that figure from? I can guess, and it ain’t pretty! But then the article goes on to say that around 128,000 children have been aided by this programme, which suggests that ol’ Ed thinks that all these kids would be now violent thugs, if not for their programme.

It’s scary, too, that if these families don’t come up to snuff, if they fail one of their surprise inspections, the parents could face jail, and the children could face youth hostels. Doesn’t that seem absurd to you? If you can stand the craziness, here’s a link to the official description of the programme listed on the Home Office’s website.

Bloggers around the world seem to be feeling much the same way I am about this strategy… it will be interesting to see what happens.

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The kooky old neighbour just had to chat to me today when I went out to get my mail. Today’s fun round of awkward conversation revolved around her crazy conspiracy theories.

For instance, today she stopped me at my letterbox, and noticed that I had my cordless phone in the pocket of my dressing gown, because I was expecting a call. She then spent the next FIVE MINUTES without a word from me talking about the security differences in regular telephones and cordless telephones. Can you imagine how unlikely anyone out there who has the know-how would give a rats ass what this lady was saying over the phone? Enough to connect into the right frequency of her particular handset? I think she has a better chance of being struck by lightning than having someone that interested in what she is saying to other people on the phone.

I was so tempted to tell her that ‘The Panasonic KX are bugged by the government’ but I thought that wouldn’t be very nice, or fair to her mental health. She started going on again about how I should get call logging, did I get it yet? Well I should have it by now, what was I waiting for, we talked about it days ago… I told her flat out I wasn’t going to get it, I didn’t see the need. She just looked at me like I was a little crazy, and left it at that, though did drop hints about it, really, really obvious hints. She told me how cheap her call logging was because her telecoms companies knew that people really wanted call logging so they were dropping the price on it… I don’t think that’s true in any way, but anyway.

Goodness, I think I am going to get a robot to go out and collect the mail. This would work for two reasons, one, she probably wouldn’t talk to it, and two, if she did, it’s a heartless robot, she can’t fault it for not stopping to chat. :lol:

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