Is your Homeland Secure?

It was reported today that the Liberal Democrats had made a Freedom of Information request regarding the use of RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) by local councils in the last five years. RIPA gives local authorities the power to use surveillance to investigate serious crimes. The list of crimes that have been investigated is startling and the underlying theme leads us to some worrying conclusions.

RIPA powers have been used to surveil members of the public for such things as dog fouling (them shitting, not us jumping in two footed on them), littering, vandalism and investigating the residence of parents who claim residency in one area to get in a school's catchment area.

The use of such powers should only be for the most serious of crimes and all these crimes seem petty. So, what does this tell us about the usage of RIPA by local authorities.

We could surmise that they are abusing the purpose of these powers and using them to snoop on people. This could be seen as an erosion of civil liberties and a grim sign that we are marching inexorably towards a surveillance state of '1984' proportions.

Or perhaps there is something else, that is less obvious. Perhaps there is a deeper reason for this ostensible abuse of serious legislation. In other words, perhaps the target of this surveillance is as serious as the use of RIPA requires. We don't know everything; maybe we should give the authorities the benefit of the doubt. What better way for those who hate our freedoms and our way of life to destroy them than to attack our infrastructure. We know they take on big targets e.g. 9/11, Bali, but what about the unseen? We need to open our minds a bit here. It isn't always possible to blow up buildings and slaughter innocent people in a town square. It's high profile and attracts a lot of attention; nibbling away at our infrastructure is a subtle way of destroying our way of life. We see dog fouling and fly tipping - RIPA could be investigating the pollution and degradation of our parks and public spaces. We see a tramp has pissed in a lift or phone box - could this not be an attack on communications and transport? We see that stuck-up parents don't want their precious children to go to the local comprehensive so they fake their address to get them into the school of choice - the authorities probably see the same and just want to catch the conceited bastards at it.

These are things you probably haven't thought of but it's food for thought. Next time you walk past a melted bin in the town centre, think who benefits the most from this 'random act' of vandalism. Perhaps then you might look at the camera pointed at that bin and feel comforted, rather than the cold fear that 'Miniluv' is just round the corner.