Old Holborn is not author of this post. That accolade belongs to the excellent Leg-Iron at Underdogs Bite Upwards
A while ago, I read on Old Holborn’s blog that Npower were encouraging children to report their parents for eco-crimes. It was chilling in its Orwellian overtones but it was a company, with no enforcement powers of its own. Therefore, while it was a vile and reprehensible idea, it was stupid rather than sinister.
At that time, Old Holborn asked where it might lead.It led here.
Councils now use children as young as eight to snoop on their neighbours. Young children cannot be tried for crimes because they are deemed in law to be too young to be held responsible. So any of these children can accuse anyone they like at any time, and they are the ultimate in unnacountable enforcement. If they are proved to get a case wrong, well, they’re only kids. If they make up a case and aren’t found out, well….Cast your mind back to when you were eight. Remember the local weirdo? Remember the guy who wouldn’t give you your ball back when it landed in his garden? Remember how you wished you had the power to take revenge?
The youngsters are among almost 5,000 residents who in some cases are being offered £500 rewards if they provide evidence of minor infractions.Not only can those kids now do something, they can get £500 for it. To an eight year old, £500 is riches beyond their imaginings.This next part could have come straight from the pages of 1984, Farenheit 451, from the script to Brazil or V for Vendetta or any of a hundred literary warnings of the dangers of state control. Or from the manual for the Hitler Youth.
The “covert human intelligence sources”, as some local authorities describe them, are also being asked to pass on the names of neighbours they believe to be responsible, or take down their number-plates.
Ealing Council in West London said: “There are hundreds of Junior Streetwatchers, aged 8-10 years old, who are trained to identify and report enviro-crime issues such as graffiti and fly-tipping.”
Harlow Council in Essex said: “We currently have 25 Street Scene Champions who work with the council. They are all aged between 11 to 14. They are encouraged to report the aftermath of enviro-crimes such as vandalism to bus shelters, graffiti, abandoned vehicles, fly-tipping etc. They do this via telephone or email direct to the council.”
Other local authorities recruit adult volunteers through advertisements in local newspapers, with at least 4,841 people already patrolling the streets in their spare time. They are watching you through your children, and they will control you through fear of those children. Those kids hanging around at the bus stop have no need to vandalise it to get their kicks. It’s more fun to drop a crisp packet as you walk by and claim you did it.
Some are assigned James Bond-style code numbers, which they use instead of their real names when they ring a special informer’s hotline.You don’t even know who they are. They don’t wear badges. They don’t identify themselves. They just phone a number. No names, just their Gorgon Youth membership number, a place, a car registration, a crime–real or imagined–and someone gets pounced on. In the name of anti-terror legislation, so such heinous and evil perpetrators of the following crimes can be brought to justice:Among the “environmental crimes” which the snoopers are asked to report, which vary from council to council, are failure to recycle rubbish, vandalism, graffiti, dog fouling, fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles.
To echo Nero’s advice to Claudius; ‘Trust no-one. No-one.’ This is the society of Socialism, the society of the Nazis, the Communists, the Khmer Rouge, and the society described so well in 1984 and Animal Farm.
The IRA have disbanded. The Islamic terrorists have gone quiet. They don’t need to bother any more because they cannot compete with the terror this government has now instilled in everyone. People are scared of their neighbours, their friends, their own children.
The war on terror is over. We lost.