The Law of Unintended Consequences

When the government appeals to prejudice, fear and ignorance to push through repressive, liberty restricting legislation, the excuse used is that it will make us “safe”, that it will somehow stop terrorists, or, worse, stop the hordes of predatory paedophiles who lurk on every street corner. Whatever the target used, it is always “someone else”, that is going to be affected and that “someone else” is always beneath contempt. Normal, law abiding, decent, upstanding citizens will be able to sleep easy in their beds knowing that they – and, importantly, their children (won’t somebody think of the children, please) are safe and the bad people will be caught and locked up. They, the good people of Britain, will not be affected by these laws – after all, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear and all those wishy-washy civil libertarians are merely friends of terrorists and paedophiles.

Then, there’s this:

Thousands of middle managers in local councils are being authorised to spy on people suspected of petty offences using powers designed to prevent crime and terrorism.

Even junior council officials are being allowed to initiate surveillance operations in what privacy campaigners likened to Eastern bloc police tactics.

When we “wishy-washy” civil libertarians complain about the latest attempt by an authoritarian government to curb yet more of our liberties, it is not the liberty of the terrorist we are thinking of, nor is it the liberty of the paedophile, murderer, housebreaker or fraudster; it is our liberty; that of the upstanding, decent citizens of Britain. For, if we do not stand up for the rights of the criminals, what of our rights when the petty little bureaucrats use this draconian legislation for purposes never originally envisaged by those passing the legislation? What about our privacy invaded because we have come to the unwelcome attention of some town hall bureaucrat who has decided that we have committed some heinous crime, such as – oh, I don’t know – lying about where we live to get our kid into a half decent school, dropping an apple core or leaving our bin out on the wrong day? Yup, these days, such petty offences are now deemed to be serious enough for the council to snoop and spy on you, to impose Ripa – a piece of legislation intended for serious crime.

Amid increasing concern in Parliament that the UK is slowly becoming a surveillance society, the committee has looked at the operation of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which some MPs say is being misused to focus on petty crime rather than serious offending.

Ripa was never intended for use by lower and middle management council employees.

“A lot of councils are making the proactive decision to use these powers more,” a spokesman for Lacors, the central body that oversees local authorities, said.

I’m sure they do. It is power beyond their wildest wet dreams. They can bully and harass innocent people to their heart’s content. And, I’m sorry, but dropping apple cores, leaving one’s bin out on the wrong day or even lying about catchment areas are not serious offences, no matter what the town hall stasi might say.

“They think it’s a fantastic tool. Inevitably, more middle-management staff will be called on to authorise surveillance.”

Then it is high time it was stopped and serious penalties imposed on them for misuse of legislation that they should not have access to in the first place.

Gus Hosein, of the campaign group Privacy International, said: “The tactics of local authorities are more like the behaviour of the Stasi.”

Quite so.