Decius wrote:

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

"If it stops just one terrorist attack, it was worth it."

Not everyone would agree that any "one terrorist attack" is worth losing any amount of civil liberty. We've had terrorist attacks in the UK for decades without this kind of thoughtless sound bite being put forward.

But I really want to point out that the only such vehicle monitoring system I have heard of here in the UK is intended to allow road charging to take place - whereby road users will be charged by the mile for their use of roads rather than the flat road tax we have now. Raising money and lowering car use rather than fighting the bogeyman. Security services will no doubt be very interested too and such similar moves as CCTV have proved very useful in combating urban crime.

oaknet wrote:

Decius wrote:

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

"If it stops just one terrorist attack, it was worth it."

Not everyone would agree that any "one terrorist attack" is worth losing any amount of civil liberty. We've had terrorist attacks in the UK for decades without this kind of thoughtless sound bite being put forward.

But I really want to point out that the only such vehicle monitoring system I have heard of here in the UK is intended to allow road charging to take place - whereby road users will be charged by the mile for their use of roads rather than the flat road tax we have now. Raising money and lowering car use rather than fighting the bogeyman. Security services will no doubt be very interested too and such similar moves as CCTV have proved very useful in combating urban crime.

I'll bet they are also useful for figuring out where your political opposition holds meetings.

Decius wrote:

oaknet wrote:

Decius wrote:

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

"If it stops just one terrorist attack, it was worth it."

Not everyone would agree that any "one terrorist attack" is worth losing any amount of civil liberty. We've had terrorist attacks in the UK for decades without this kind of thoughtless sound bite being put forward.

But I really want to point out that the only such vehicle monitoring system I have heard of here in the UK is intended to allow road charging to take place - whereby road users will be charged by the mile for their use of roads rather than the flat road tax we have now. Raising money and lowering car use rather than fighting the bogeyman. Security services will no doubt be very interested too and such similar moves as CCTV have proved very useful in combating urban crime.

I'll bet they are also useful for figuring out where your political opposition holds meetings.

Absolutely! But "political opposition"? What's that? Oh I remember! We used to have one but someone gave that away too...

Recently i the UK a woman was arresting for standing in the street reading out the names of UK Iraqi dead. Arrested in the name of freedom. Another woman was arrested for walking along a cycle path. Arrested in the name of freedom. Had she been on a bike no-one would have stopped her. Had she been walking with a bike...

George Orwell anyone... ?