Sorry I've been so inactive, guys - a quick trip to NHSland laid me up for a bit. Whilst I try to get my head around what's been going on, here's an open thread. What have I missed..?
By Alex Deane
Admin
20/12/2010
13/12/2010
Into the Lion's Den...
Our Director, Alex Deane, took part in a debate in Newcastle at an international security conference in November, with
•DCC Graeme Gerrard, deputy chief constable of Cheshire and the ACPO lead on CCTV
•Colin Murphy, deputy chair of the PCMA and CCTV coordinator of the Safer Birmingham Partnership
•Gordon McLanaghan, manager of the Emergency Control Centre at Bristol City Council
•Simon Adcock, a member of the British Security Industry Association's (BSIA) CCTV Technical Committee (TC/10), and advises on CCTV related issues
•Dr Pete Fussey, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Essex
Do check out the footage. A fair crack of the whip is extended to BBW but you'll see tha that the slant of the audience and panel is obvious. You will see some very interesting inside chat from the security industry, for example about how little compliance there is with the law within the industry - and, in one highlight, Alex is confronted by a pleasingly angry representative from Bromley Council, who was named and shamed in our RIPA report - you will enjoy Alex's response.
With thanks to the guys at Security Media for recording the event so well
14/10/2010
Paypal and your support...
Thanks to everyone that told us our Paypal account was broken. It is now fixed! :)
13/10/2010
A review of the current playing field for civil liberties
I have written an extended piece for the website Critical Reaction reviewing the various outstanding civil liberties issues under the Coalition. Part 1 is here - Part 2 is here.
By Alex Deane
14/09/2010
Happy Birthday to us!
Big Brother Watch is 1 year old!
Thank you so much for supporting us over this eventful and (we humbly say) successful year. We look forward to an even bigger year to come!
The Big Brother Watch team
20/08/2010
Send a picture, win a prize
Our famous guerilla stickers have been flying out of Big Brother Watch HQ for months now, and the demand has been as high as ever in recent weeks. And yet the supply of images for our rogues' gallery has been low of late!
To encourage you to use the ammunition we've been shipping out to you, a prize is in the offing. The next ten people to send in photos of their stickers attached to something authoritarian (not your local bobby please, it seems that they don't find it funny) shall win the wholly inadequate reward of a book, which we'll send out to you gratis.
It is an impressive little publication called "Under Surveillance" - we think you'll like it...
By Alex Deane
30/07/2010
We're away!
Thanks for dropping by to see us here at Big Brother Watch.
Alex is in Sierra Leone until 7 August and Dylan is away on his honeymoon, so we won't be posting for a week!
In that time, please feel free to use the comments on this post as an open thread if you want to talk about the issues we discuss on this site, take a moment to look into the archives and see what we've been writing about recently, or drop us a line and we'll get back to you when we're back in the office.
If you're after media contact or some feisty up-to-the-minute chat, consider dropping by to see our friends at No2ID or Privacy International.
Hope you miss us! :)
06/04/2010
General Election 2010 – A Vote for Privacy and Freedom
This week Big Brother Watch launches our election manifesto – a list of achievable legislative pledges that would go some way to rolling-back the surveillance state; give the British people greater freedom to live their lives without state interference; and end the persecution of the law-abiding British family.
Britain is at a crossroads in privacy and liberty. In recent years, public opposition has seen the government defeated on 90 days detention, forced to make ID cards non-compulsory and a series of concessions made on large-scale state databases from the NHS Spine to ContactPoint. But these only scrape the surface of the widespread erosion in personal freedom that has occurred in the past decade.
The forthcoming election will be dominated by the rival parties’ plans for the economy. But if you are looking for dividing lines, few issues can be as stark in and across the political divide as the contrasting approaches to civil liberties.
Our manifesto is a list of all the unnecessary laws and overbearing rules that intrude into the lives of British people, and legislative reforms that could restore our freedom to a level befitting the World’s oldest democracy.
The list is by no-means exhaustive. To compile a complete inventory of all the laws we would like to see changed, scrapped and watered-down would require far more space than a manifesto should take, and be testing reading for those who are approaching the issue for the first time. Instead, we have used broad-strokes to outline our position on everything from the National Identity Register to the European Arrest Warrant.
We will hold any politician standing for election on 6th May to this manifesto. Few will agree with all our proposals. Some may agree with none. But, as Big Brother Watch moves into its eighth month, we felt it important that we set out the changes we would like to see made in Britain, whichever party or parties hold the keys to No.10 after the 6th May.
By Dylan Sharpe
13/02/2010
We are moving
From Monday, Big Brother Watch will be located at:
55 Tufton Street
London
SW1P 3QL
Please make a note of our new address.
As a consequence of this move, our email server is currently down and we are not receiving any email messages.
Our new server should be up and running by the end of Monday and we will endeavour to respond to all emails received over the next few days.
Thank you for your patience.
Big Brother Watch
05/11/2009
Big Brother Watch expands onto Facebook
The Big Brother Watch Facebook Group is now available here (you may need to log-in to your Facebook account before being able to see the group).
Please do click the link above and join our group - membership is obviously free and you will be automatically approved.
We are hoping the group will become a forum for discussion of the big topics of the day in individual liberty and personal privacy. It will also give you a chance to interact with both your fellow BBW supporters and the BBW staff, who will visit the group regularly to update followers on what is going on with Big Brother Watch.
By The Big Brother Watch Team
20/10/2009
05/10/2009
Civil Liberties Vs Security Fringe Meeting
First of all, our humblest apologies for the lack of blogging today, we have been in various fringe events throughout the morning at Conservative Party Conference (more on these later) before the Director of Big Brother Watch, Alex Deane, took to the stage at the Freedom Zone in conversation with Douglas Murrary on the topic 'civil liberties Vs security: are they compatible?'
For those who didn't attend, it was a vigorous and interesting hour that threw up a number of key questions on the topic.
I don't have much time to go into all the finer details, which I will leave for Alex to explore later this week, but I want to outline the two most intriguing compromises the two speakers came to during the discussion:
1. Douglas made the very good argument that at some point we have to reconcile the fact that 'bad' legislation is often applied alongside political correctness, thus creating the most heinous abuses of individual freedom - a point Alex agreed upon.
2. Alex argued that it is often in the aftermath of a catastrophic event that some of the worst legislation is pushed through - more as a reaction without sufficient forethought. Douglas agreed and suggested a 6 month period be applied after an event, such as a terrorist attack, in which no laws can be passed.
As I said earlier, I can't go into all the finer points now, but please do comment below on your own opinions. And please do follow @bbw1984 on twitter as we visit more fringe meetings throughout the day.
By Dylan Sharpe
04/10/2009
A little light Sunday reading
Listed below is a selection of articles we've picked out we think you might find interesting.
Press and Journal - Broch’s new CCTV comes under fire
North Scotland's most widely read weekly newspaper follows up the blogpost Alex wrote last week on Fraserburgh's all-encompassing new CCTV network.
...A north-east town’s new CCTV network has been criticised by a national pressure group, just days after the cameras were installed. Campaign group Big Brother Watch, which was launched in London last month, has condemned the long-awaited security scheme at Fraserburgh...
Daily Telegraph - EU embryonic Home Office set up in secret talks under Lisbon Treaty
The morning after the Irish no vote on the Lisbon Treaty is overturned, the Daily Telegraph reveals plans for an embryonic EU "Home Office" to organise intelligence sharing were agreed in secret talks last week.
...Under the plans, the scope of information available to law enforcement agencies and "public security organisations" would be extended from the sharing of DNA and fingerprint databases, kept and stored for new digital generation ID cards, to include CCTV footage and material gathered from internet surveillance...
The Observer - Civil liberties row as English and Welsh workers pay for chance of a job
The Observer reveal that half a million people in England and Wales a year are having to pay £23 each for basic criminal record checks before wary employers consider offering them a job.
...Although the government introduced legislation in 1997 that established the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and allowed employers to carry out standard or enhanced checks on those applying to work with children, it never implemented legislation that would allow people to request basic disclosures...
By The Big Brother Watch team
02/10/2009
Big Brother Watch at Conservative Party Conference
Big Brother Watch is off to Conservative Party Conference and over the course of the event we intend to be in all the key debates and meetings, providing up-to-the-minute details of what is being said and relaying them to you all through our Twitter feed.
For all those who use the social media tool 'Twitter', please follow Big Brother Watch at @bbw1984.
Big Brother Watch will also form part of the TaxPayers' Alliance Conference Stand, which will be located in The Westminster Village Fête in the Freedom Zone, which can be found in The Bridgwater Hall, Choir Circle Foyer (1st floor).
As we previewed last week, Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, will be speaking at an event in The Freedom Zone, kindly provided by our friends The Freedom Association.
Alex will be in conversation with Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion discussing the question, "Civil liberties and security - are they compatible?"
The event will be at 1.00 p.m. on Monday 5th October in the Barbirolli Room, Bridgewater Hall.
Once again, we hope to see you all there.
We also recommend you come along to the events being hosted by the TaxPayers' Alliance, which are available to view here.
We will still be blogging as well as twittering, so do continue to visit www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk for all the latest news.
By Dylan Sharpe
25/09/2009
Alex Deane in conversation with Douglas Murray
Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, will be speaking at an event in The Freedom Zone at Conservative Party Conference, kindly provided by our friends The Freedom Association.
The event will be at 1.00 p.m. on Monday 5th October in the Barbirolli Room, Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3WS.
For those who have never been to The Freedom Zone, there is always plenty of opportunity for members of the audience to contribute to the discussion and, being outside the security zone, the meeting is open to all - no conference passes needed.
We look forward to seeing you all there!
By Big Brother Watch Team
22/09/2009
Welcome
While we have not launched yet, we thought it best to get our blog up and running so that people can see what issues we will be talking about and get more people interested in the campaign.
We have already been previewed in the Sunday Times (click here to read) and were the first to comment on the Conservatives’ policy paper ‘Reversing the Rise of the Surveillance State’ when it was released last week.
If you want to know more about what we will be doing please go to the about and mission statement sections, where we lay out our key aims and ideas.
To keep up to date with our progress and for details of when we launch and any events we might be doing, please sign up to our newsletter.
We are a not for profit organisation and any donations will go straight into helping us defend personal freedom and civil liberty. If you wish to make a contribution please click here.
Finally, if you wish to contact us about any of your experiences of the big brother state we are very keen to hear as many examples as possible as we build up evidence of the extent to which our government and local authorities have overreached into the lives of the British citizen. Our contact details are available here.
Many thanks for taking the time to look at what Big Brother Watch is doing. There are many other features on the website including our twitter feed and media archive. We will be writing regular blogs so do bookmark this website and visit us regularly for up-to-date analysis and comment on civil liberties in the UK and elsewhere.
The Big Brother Watch team
Recent Comments