Another pint, Sir ? Smile For The Camera Please

by johnofgwent

The people that brought you the Invasion of Iraq on the back of a pack lof lies that weapons of mass destruction would rain down on your head a mere forty-five minutes after it took saddam hussein's fancy tu inleash armageddon are working overtime again.

Here's their latest terror tactic.

I can see the slogans next now. "CCTV is your friend". "CCTV is a useful tool against terrorists". "The computer is your friend". "Are you not happy that the computer is your friend?". "I can see you are not happy, Winston .... it is time for another visit to Room One-Zero-One"

Interestingly I have found at least one CCTV installation company whose website uses that picture in its own advertising but their spin is 'do you want your business to be next'. which begs the question is this a follower of the cult of the dead paedophile rognaising their ticket to paradise, or some two-bit car thief nicking a car stereo to get his next street drug fix.

I guess we'll never know, because one thing's for sure - the lying pro-labour-party scum running the metropolitan police aren't going to be telling you the truth anytime soon.

But while the police and the government would like you to think this is all benign, just look what I dug up from the pages of the BBC Web site. Under the guise of maintaining public order, public houses are going to be forced to install CCTV monitoring as a condition of havijg a licence to serve alcohol, regardless of whether the place is a black hole of drunkenness and debauchery on a grand scale, or a quiet country pub with half a dozen regulars on a good day.

Here's a few quotes from that web page.

The information commissioner has said pubs with no history of trouble should not be forced to install CCTV cameras.

The Information Commissioner's Office is concerned that the Policing and Crime Bill could introduce this as part of mandatory conditions for licensing. "The use of CCTV must be reasonable and proportionate... to maintain public trust and confidence," it said.

However, the government beg to disagree. Riding roughshod - as they have come to expect as their god given right - over the wishes of the law abiding men and woman to enjoy a pleasure rooted in the dawn of civilisation within these shores, The Home Office said ...

.... the mandatory code would target bad practices "that can result in crime and disorder"

Like serving you more than the government recommended limit of a half a pint of gnat's piss. And of course, these will be fitted in such a way as to ensure the pub DOES charge you Liam Tosspot's Minimum Price per unit - or the pub can kiss goodnight to its licence.

No mention of who will control those cameras, of course, or where they will have to send their feeds, or whether your private conversations will be recorded. And all in the name of preventing terrorism and crime, of course.

It was five years ago that stories first hit the news that public houses were being forced to install cctv and keep the recordings for 28 days as part of the "fight against pub violence". Now as someone who has witnessed a modern-day variant of this quaint and charming scene ....

(..... that's me on the left, the john prescott lookalike, keeping my head down ... !!)

.... I can assure you the reality is far less quaint ! I have done many things in my five decades on this earth, including serving behind the bar at some pretty interesting drinking establishments, and I was for a while one of the named holders of the "licence to sell intoxicating liquor on and off the premises" at the works social club where I served on the committee. So I know a thing or two about how it used to be working and running such establishments. And I have to agree that some places attracct the sort of clientele that, well, one would prefer not to have as clientele in the first place. And for those places, where there is a track record of widespread or repeated violent or unpleasant behaviour on the part of that clientele, well, such measures are probably needed.

But why should every town and country pub the length of this land be forced down the same road. Why, in Gordon Brown's own words, should the law abiding reasonable majority be forced to pay for the actions of the minority.

Why indeed.

But then again, Gordon Brown promised "British Jobs For British Workers". And "Prudence In Our Time".