10,000 Covert Spying Operations Undertaken Against Home Owners

[Realistbear]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/244...-last-year.html

Local authorities launched 10,000 snooping operations last year

Councils have been accused of abusing anti-terror laws after it emerged that local authorities launched almost 10,000 spying missions last year to investigate such petty offences as dog fouling, cat turding and under-age smoking.

By Christopher Hope

Last Updated: 6:49AM BST 23 Jul 2008

Local authorities complain that they are caught between a rock and a hard place Photo: GEOFF PUGH

More than half a million requests for highly personal communications data, such as records of private telephone calls and e-mails, were also lodged by councils and law enforcement agencies.

Snooping by local authorities has now become so widespread that a Government watchdog has threatened to strip councils of their powers to spy on people, and

Gordon Brown has ordered an inquiry

into the rapid increase in the use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).

Now that New Labour have been removed from most of our local authorities I wonder if things will change? Probably not I suspect.

The abuse of power is systemic and has been the child of New Labour policies for some years. Control and fear tactics are the weapons Brown's government uses to subjugate and to pacify the masses.

You are being watched.

I would like to see a Parliamentary Inquiry in to LA wages and nepotism in the 6 figure salary "jobs." The results will surprise some but not others who are familiar with the Golden Trough Awards.

__________________

"cat turding" mine--I find this worse than "dog fouling" because at least dogs do it in public places and not in your garden!

Edited July 23, 2008 by Realistbear

[Bloo Loo]

Well, snooping, its better than playing spider solitaire! They gotta find something to pass the time between meetings and breaks.

[Realistbear]

Just announced on t' Radio that Parlaimnet is going on its "summer break." They re-convene in November. They must mean the actual summer, a presumed "Indian Summer" and pre-Guy Fawkes late late summer?

What's the latest on Glasgow East? If Gordon's candidate wins it will give him an ego boost that will last until next PMQT--in November!

[Justice]

Yes and the same snooping tools will be used against MP's too.

Time we all moved towards a secure email system using a two part key to encrypt emails by servers that are not under the control of the UK /American goverment.

Yahoo is also supplying infomation to these snoops and have so much of the market that they can follow you from site to site so turn off cross site cookies at the very least.

[Nelly]

Its time politicians were removed from running the country.

We have given them a pile of chances and all they do is boll0x it up.

They are all just a bunch of nerds who no one listened too, so they went into politics to make themselves feel important, but they simply cant handle the job at all.

[Sheer Heart Attack]

This is why the state should be rolled back and why people shouldn't be informants against fellow citizens.

It is in the nature of the public sector and in particular their sneering, mistrusting, power-drunk and socially-inadequate "enforcers" to abuse the public. The fact that NuLab gave such wide-ranging powers to these diabolical officials/"people" says much about their general attitude to the populace.

[The Colour]

My world is officially richer today, having just learned that the term "cat turding" is valid and legitimate for everyday use.

Edit: Damn you RB!!

Edited July 23, 2008 by The Colour

[Selling up]

RB, your headline is a little bizarre.

"Home owners" are not mentioned once in the article, which is about 10,000 covert spying operations undertaken against UK residents.

Home ownership is not relevant to any of the offences mentioned (fly tipping, cat turding etc)

Edited July 23, 2008 by Selling up

[lets get it right]

Yes and the same snooping tools will be used against MP's too.

Time we all moved towards a secure email system using a two part key to encrypt emails by servers that are not under the control of the UK /American goverment.

Yahoo is also supplying infomation to these snoops and have so much of the market that they can follow you from site to site so turn off cross site cookies at the very least.

What is a cross site cookie?

['Bart']

after it emerged that local authorities launched almost 10,000 spying missions last year to investigate such petty offences as dog fouling, cat turding and under-age smoking.

Horsing around with squeezy ketchup bottles?

[Willit]

So someone enlighten me about this new sport of "Cat Turding"?

Is this a hobby you can take up solo, or more of a team activity?

Is the cats welfare in any way affected?

Is it best to use your own cat, or "borrow" a neighbours?

Do you need much practice or traininng, or can pretty much anyone pick up a cat and "turd" away?

In my mind I see "Cat Turding" as a little like ice curling, cats being slid like pucks toward a target, but I may be wrong of course.

All insight into this new activity welcome.

[Mrs Bear]

Snooping by local authorities has now become so widespread that a Government watchdog has threatened to strip councils of their powers to spy on people, and Gordon Brown has ordered an inquiry into the rapid increase in the use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).[/indent]

Snooping and nosiness is endemic in govt. at every level.

I've mentioned this on another thread, but on a related theme, I work p/t in little local library, where anyone wanting to join is asked to state not only their ethnic origin (they've been asking this for yrs) but also their religion and sexual orientation. This bit of the form is anonymous, and does include 'prefer not to say' boxes, but that's beside the point. (No 'b*gger off and mind your own business' box, of course)

When I questioned this (to me) offensive and highly intrusive nosiness, I was told that it was soon going to be a central government requirement.

I always conveniently 'forget' to dish these forms out. Not sure yet quite how I'm going to put this to the training officer* who is coming soon to teach us how to 'encourage' the punters to fill these in.

And this from a council constantly protesting that it is desperately short of money and last yr tried to close this very well-used little library until local protest forced a re-think.

*Presumably it'll be a Diversity Training Officer at, what, £30K?

[frozen_out]

Snooping and nosiness is endemic in govt. at every level.

I've mentioned this on another thread, but on a related theme, I work p/t in little local library, where anyone wanting to join is asked to state not only their ethnic origin (they've been asking this for yrs) but also their religion and sexual orientation. This bit of the form is anonymous, and does include 'prefer not to say' boxes, but that's beside the point. (No 'b*gger off and mind your own business' box, of course)

When I questioned this (to me) offensive and highly intrusive nosiness, I was told that it was soon going to be a central government requirement.

I always conveniently 'forget' to dish these forms out. Not sure yet quite how I'm going to put this to the training officer* who is coming soon to teach us how to 'encourage' the punters to fill these in.

And this from a council constantly protesting that it is desperately short of money and last yr tried to close this very well-used little library until local protest forced a re-think.

*Presumably it'll be a Diversity Training Officer at, what, £30K?

Next time I'm given one of these ethnic origin forms I WILL fill it in incorrectly on purpose.

When some petty idiot dishing the form out tells me I don't look of sino-afro-carribean origin (or whatever heritage I decide to put down on a whim) I'll ask them very loudly if they're racist and denying my genetic heritage, then ask if they'd like me to ask to see their superior to file a formal complaint of racial harrassment.

The system is so absurd and the people in it so mindlessly driven by forms and pen pushing that I'm almost sure they would have to accept I'm a black man if that's the box I tick. No one would dare say otherwise.

[Sheer Heart Attack]

Next time I'm given one of these ethnic origin forms I WILL fill it in incorrectly on purpose.

When some petty idiot dishing the form out tells me I don't look of sino-afro-carribean origin (or whatever heritage I decide to put down on a whim) I'll ask them very loudly if they're racist and denying my genetic heritage, then ask if they'd like me to ask to see their superior to file a formal complaint of racial harrassment.

The system is so absurd and the people in it so mindlessly driven by forms and pen pushing that I'm almost sure they would have to accept I'm a black man if that's the box I tick. No one would dare say otherwise.

Perhaps the most surreal thing of all is that it is not really ethnic minority groups that want this done - it is hand-wringing, white, middle-class liberals trying to socially engineer.

The ethnic minority groups then get blamed by the media and resentment grows towards them. Why can't we all just get along?

[Home_To_Roost]

-

Edited July 23, 2008 by Home_To_Roost

[Tonkers]

So someone enlighten me about this new sport of "Cat Turding"?

Is this a hobby you can take up solo, or more of a team activity?

Is the cats welfare in any way affected?

Is it best to use your own cat, or "borrow" a neighbours?

Do you need much practice or traininng, or can pretty much anyone pick up a cat and "turd" away?

In my mind I see "Cat Turding" as a little like ice curling, cats being slid like pucks toward a target, but I may be wrong of course.

All insight into this new activity welcome.

I have been a very happy cat turder since January!!

We cat turders are not related to the other sport, cat curling however.

[Willit]

Cat Curling doesn't sound as much fun as Cat Turding to be honest.

[cartimandua51]

Next time I'm given one of these ethnic origin forms I WILL fill it in incorrectly on purpose.

When some petty idiot dishing the form out tells me I don't look of sino-afro-carribean origin (or whatever heritage I decide to put down on a whim) I'll ask them very loudly if they're racist and denying my genetic heritage, then ask if they'd like me to ask to see their superior to file a formal complaint of racial harrassment.

The system is so absurd and the people in it so mindlessly driven by forms and pen pushing that I'm almost sure they would have to accept I'm a black man if that's the box I tick. No one would dare say otherwise.

They would be ecstatic if you put that - LOTS of ticks in their diversity boxes. What they really, really don't want is White able-bodied Christian male.

[Mrs Bear]

Next time I'm given one of these ethnic origin forms I WILL fill it in incorrectly on purpose.

When some petty idiot dishing the form out tells me I don't look of sino-afro-carribean origin (or whatever heritage I decide to put down on a whim) I'll ask them very loudly if they're racist and denying my genetic heritage, then ask if they'd like me to ask to see their superior to file a formal complaint of racial harrassment.

The system is so absurd and the people in it so mindlessly driven by forms and pen pushing that I'm almost sure they would have to accept I'm a black man if that's the box I tick. No one would dare say otherwise.

If it also asks your sexual orientation, please disregard the hetero/gay/bi and put something imaginative in the 'other' box. Colleagues and I have been wondering about this, but since we have led relatively sheltered lives, sh**p-sh***er is the best we've come up with so far.

[Realistbear]

"Cat turding" is thought by many to be more offensive than "dog fouling" as the former takes place in your back garden and the latter is only occasionaly confined to your front garden.

Cat turds are also more pungent and the accompanying pissing has an amonia stench that lingers for weeks and becomes particularly repugnat to the nasal passages when the weather is hot.

Local Authorities have no fines or spying operations for people who cause or permit "cat turding" whereas dog fouling attracts a hefty fine.

[VacantPossession]

Snooping and nosiness is endemic in govt. at every level.

I've mentioned this on another thread, but on a related theme, I work p/t in little local library, where anyone wanting to join is asked to state not only their ethnic origin (they've been asking this for yrs) but also their religion and sexual orientation. This bit of the form is anonymous, and does include 'prefer not to say' boxes, but that's beside the point. (No 'b*gger off and mind your own business' box, of course)

When I questioned this (to me) offensive and highly intrusive nosiness, I was told that it was soon going to be a central government requirement.

This adds further evidence that the Data Protection Act is not worth the paper that it's written on. The Data Protection Act purports to protect the average citizen's privacy. In fact it does no such thing. What it does is to protect Corporations, Local Government and other institutions from you knowing about things you are entitled to know about. Every single bank in the UK BYPASSES the Data Protection Act by making you sign a form before you even open a bank account, or before you do any major transaction, absolving the bank from the terms of the Act, and as a result they can flog, rent, give away and generally spread around to other institutions anything they wish about your personal and private details.

Local Councils have roughly the same powers. The Data Protection Act protects THEM when they do not wish you to know things that are quite useful. For example you can ask them to give you a list of addresses of other houses which have recently appealed their council tax banding. This information will be refused. But it is not refused because you want to invade someone else's privacy. It is refused because the council doesn't want you to know how many others have compelled the council to reduce their banding, and it follows from this that if any similar properties exist, the council is technically REQURED to reduce banding for them, but doesn't, so uses the Data Protection Act bogusly to protect itself.

There are many, many other examples. It is one rule for the citizen and another rule for public and corporate institutions. Local Councils have the right to know more about you than your own wife or husband does. This exceeds even Orwell's vision of municipal abuse of power.

VP

[Its time to buy]

You fined me for dog fouling??

But Biggles isnt a Canine. It is a feline! Look it has for legs, a tail, and sharp teeth, what more proof do you want?

I was told that I have a rare cross bread of cat by the pet shop, it may look like a dog, but technically it is a cat.

Biggles also likes going for walks like a dog, but because other dogs think biggles is a dog, I have to be careful which is why I keep him on a lead.

[SurgeonGeneral]

They would be ecstatic if you put that - LOTS of ticks in their diversity boxes. What they really, really don't want is White able-bodied Christian male.

...with a job

['Bart']

The Data Protection Act protects THEM when they do not wish you to know things that are quite useful.

Reminds me of a line from "Yes Minister" where Sir Humphrey says that the Official Secrets Acts isn't there to protect secrets, but to protect officials.

[juvenal]

Reminds me of a line from "Yes Minister" where Sir Humphrey says that the Official Secrets Acts isn't there to protect secrets, but to protect officials.

The phrase 'Cat Turding' is in frequent use here. From the old Wessex 'Tor' meaning an annoying, petty council official. 'Ding' means 'to strike in the face with a substantial lump of cat shit'. Thus Cat 'Tor Ding'.

Traditionally, peasants would collect cat turds from gardens and open spaces, moulding them into a noxious ball - the 'Ding'. They would then secrete this under their smocks, until confronted with an official demanding details of sexual preference, ethnicity, claimed disabilities, size of knob and so forth.

The 'Ding' would be delivered at this point, with a loud yell of 'Try that, you simple-minded ****!'.