I have moaned a lot about those spy cars and vans that patrol our streets, filming us in those brief moments when we’re not being filmed by omnipresent static CCTV cameras. I have even written about them here on Lib Dem Voice.
What annoys me in particular is the number of times I have seen them seeming to break the rules they are there to enforce. Take this example from southwest London, highlighted for me by Jason Hunter. These people are exercising power over us, filming us as we go peacefully about our everyday lives. I don’t like at all the idea that they might feel themselves to be above the law.
It may to some sound petty, but to me this is important. What I am driving at was summed up recently by Norman Baker in this vox pop interview at the Birmingham conference. Asked about the values of the Lib Dems his first instinctive answer is about ensuring the balance of power between the State and the individual is not too heavily weighted in favour of the State. Spot on.
It’s because I see this issue in this light that I was simultaneously annoyed and overjoyed when I spotted one of the vans parked in a restricted parking zone and across a cycle lane, whilst out walking the other week. I casually leaned against a nearby lamppost, whipped out my BlackBerry and shot this footage:
By Stuart Bonar
| Sat 12th February 2011 - 1:02 pm
We know the facts by now. We are borrowing north of £100 billion every year, with our national debt having now topped £1 trillion. To finance all that we are paying £120 million every day just to pay the interest on that debt – enough to build a new school every day or a new hospital every week. Only the most shameless of deficit deniers would argue that we do not need to find cuts.
So, let me offer up one idea for a cut that has lots of potential across the country: council-run CCTV camera cars. These mobile CCTV …
A bit of variation from the weighty national matters of the moment comes in the form of this welcome news from Edinburgh, where Kevin Lang has an excellent chance of winning the Westminster Parliamentary seat from Labour:
John Loughton, the winner of Big Brother and former Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, has joined the Scottish Liberal Democrats and today announced his backing for Kevin Lang to become the new MP for his home constituency of Edinburgh North & Leith.
John won Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack in January 2008 and served as the Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament. He went on
John B Grout Excellent piece, Josh. As for seeking others' thoughts on the pitch, here are mine:
Labour and the Greens want to do things for you, the Conservatives and R...
David Evans It's an interesting article, which gives us more to think about, but when it ends with "Government and politics can strive toward this platform ... giving ind...
Neil Sandison This one of a series of articles recently published in the Liberal Democrat Voice that defines our social liberal values . Frequently the hot house of Westminst...
Pawel Urbanski This is the right problem to be working on, and I think the answer may be less about the words than about the moments. In my experience people learn what we sta...
Simon Robinson It's good to have an MP putting herself forward for this. The manifesto seems a bit vague though. All good thoughts and nothing you can really disagree with, b...
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
What can £72 million buy nowadays?
The National Health Service (UK)
John Pardoe, Margaret Thatcher and antisemitism in Finchley
Memories of 9-11
John B Grout 
David Evans 
Neil Sandison 
Pawel Urbanski 
Simon Robinson 