POWER
TO INVADE HOMES
Nearly 20,000 council snoopers have the power to
barge into our homes. Armies of
clipboard-clutching officials can demand entry to
check anything from pot plants to fridges.
Town halls have an average of 47 staff with the
right to intrude. Northamptonshire County Council
and Glasgow City Council have a staggering 500
each and they can use any of 1,043 Big Brother
laws to invade homes and businesses.
The growing number of council spies is laid bare
in figures obtained under freedom of
information.They can storm in to check if pot
plants have pests or imported
"passport" documents.
Inspectors can also enter to survey gardens,
check if fridges have the right energy ratings or
if owners keep rabbits.
They can also use a little-known law to see if
the occupants are practising hypnotism illegally.
The three out of four councils who provided
figures admitted to having 14,793 officers who
can enter private property without a warrant.
If this was extended to the 115 who didn't
answer, the figure could be 20,000. (Source: The Sun, Dec/09) |
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SNOOPERS 2
An army of snooping bin police will inspect the rubbish
of millions of families under a sinister Government plan
to create zero waste in Britain. Squads of
spies will carry out dawn raids to check that
householders are not throwing out any rubbish and
recycling it all instead. People failing to comply with
the strict rules face hefty fines. The cloak-and-dagger
crackdown from the so-called Talibin has been
launched in six pilot areas and could eventually apply to
virtually all UK households.
It is the latest draconian scheme to be forced through by
Labour ministers who have already masterminded the hated
fortnightly collections and pay-as-you-throw bin taxes.
Laws passed in 2005 give town halls power to enter
premises to examine and investigate as
required and to take samples of articles or
substances found if they think householders have
broken any waste rules. The Zero Waste Places Scheme was
launched by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.
The idea is that people will have several recycling bins,
including a slop bucket for food scraps and bins for
glass, plastic, cardboard, paper, tins and garden waste.
Everything that could possibly be burned, re-used,
recycled or left to rot would have to be sorted and
collected, with a traditional black bin for the very
small amount to be sent to landfill. Mr Benn suggested
every council will be expected to have full
recycling services by 2020. Where such radical
policies are in force in Germany, normal bins are emptied
only once a month.
Pilot areas have been set up in parts of Dorset,
Shropshire, London and Suffolk. Larry Wolfe, of
Shropshire Council, confirmed that the £10,000 scheme
involved checking peoples bins. An independent
research company had been employed to collect refuse from
a sample of properties over different days. A Defra
spokeswoman said the idea was to find innovative
ways of reducing waste.
A Defra spokesman said, This project does not
involve fines for householders who fail to recycle and it
does not involve going through individual bins. The
project looks at samples of waste collected to see what
needs to be done to make it easier for residents to
recycle. Reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill is
essential if we are to tackle greenhouse gas emissions
and get the most possible use out of the planet's
resources. (Source: Daily Express, Feb/10)
People will be routinely asked to answer
sensitive questions about their sexuality so a Government
quango can compile a massive 'equalities' database. The
Equality and Human Rights Commission is to take
information given in confidence by millions and place it
on a huge 'Lifestyle Database'. It will draw information
from sources including visits to A&E departments,
government surveys and the reporting of crimes to police.
In order for bureaucrats to measure whether gay or
straight citizens are suffering greater 'inequality', the
EHRC said everybody should be asked to provide
information about their sexual identity.
They will be asked if they are heterosexual/straight,
gay/lesbian, bisexual or other. Campaigners said the
establishment of the 'Big Brother' database, which will
be available on the quango's website, would alarm the
public. Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, said,
"This intrusive database is being built without even
the smallest consideration for privacy. When people go to
hospital, they don't think that information about their
illness is going to be shared with the EHRC. What
possible right does the EHRC have to build this database,
and then share what they've gathered with other people on
their website?"
Details of the plan emerged after the EHRC, led by
chairman Trevor Phillips, began the tendering process for
establishing the database. Freedom of Information
requests, obtained by the Old Holborn blogger, then
revealed what the scheme involved. Equalities bosses have
decided they must work out whether citizens are suffering
inequality based upon various different factors. These
include age, gender, disability, sexual orientation,
religion and belief, transgender status, ethnicity and
social class.
Citizens' characteristics will be checked through their
answers to various government surveys and information on
whether they need hospital care or have called the
police. It will allow bureaucrats to check different
groups are not more likely to die young, be murdered,
suffer illness, or violent crime. Checks will also be
made of happiness, healthy living standards and
educational attainment. Any minority groups considered to
be losing out can then be targeted for Government help.
It will not be possible to identify individuals from the
information on the database.
But what is alarming campaigners is the way the
information will be compiled. Staff are planning to take
data which is given to a list of 45 different sources by
members of the public. This includes their A&E
records, the British Crime Survey, the British Election
Study, the Census, Childcare and Early Years Parents'
Survey and the Citizenship Survey. The information is not
provided in the knowledge it will be handed over to an
equality quango but the EHRC's report on the way the
database should be established says the sexual identity
question should become a standard part of major surveys
'as soon as practicable'.
An EHRC spokesman said, "Crime rates, poor hospital
treatment, lack of childcare places and inadequate
housing are some of the things that British people are
worried about. Looking at each of these problems in
isolation doesn't tell the whole story, as these factors
may combine together to have a bigger effect on our
lives. By looking at all the issues together, our
framework will show what needs to be done to make Britain
a fairer place to live." (Source: Daily Mail, Dec/09)
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