Environment Agency goes to High Court for right to spy Government officials investigating illegal dumping will go to the High Court in attempt to win similar intrusive surveillance powers to MI5. The Environment Agency wants its investigators to be able to trespass on private land and bug vehicles. "They are a useful tool," a spokeswoman said. The agency today blamed dodgy …
So now they can take more pennyless, disabled pensioners to court and sue for thousands, just 'cos they put one baked-bean tin in the normal rubbish by mistake!
Env Agency are worse than MI5, at least MI5 are spies and they are employed to be spies, EnvAg are nothing bu jumped up little jobsworths with a rubbish fetish!
Lets just bug everybody and then we can find out what we want when we want.
I wonder has a circumstances happened yet where one individual with no terrorist connection will be simultaneously monitored by multiple agencies? Would this be watching the Watched?
Next thing you know is all the surveillance will be sub contracted out to the Police. After all they have all the training, are trustworthy, and save money to help catch terrorists. More profitable than doing Police work.
On the other hand if you have had your nice car broken into or had a family member raped/murdered/tortured to suicide the Police won't even help because it is not a 'no-criming' offence.
It seems the priorities in this country and getting a little mixed up. If you do something which will cost 'The Man' they will use every weapon in their arsenal to bring you to book. On the other hand if you suffer a crime which doesn't cost the 'The Man' any money or aggro... 'Here's your crime number Mate on your way….'
Anon: Because the Police don't get irony
Get a police liaison, get evidence, get a warrant and have the cops mount a legit investigation.
If the police say they don't have time, lobby for more officers, not more powers for bin sniffers.
I appreciate that illegal dumping is very bad and can have extreme environmental consequences, there's a quarry up the road from me full of arsenic, for instance, and a site being cleared of dioxins.
The potential seriousness of genuine environmental crime (vs e.g. putting your bin out on the wrong day) is a reason to involve the proper agencies (viz : the rozzers) earlier, not bypass them altogether.
Lobby For Bobbies! Cops Not Quangos! Down With The Police State! (oh, hang on ... )
> The Environment Agency wants its investigators to be able to trespass on private land and bug vehicles.
> "They are a useful tool," a spokeswoman said.
Well, yes; and the abilities to inspect bank accounts at will, burst in and rifle through paperwork without prior authorisation and cart people off for extended involuntary interviews would no doubt be useful tools too.
Curse these pesky "human rights" things, forever getting in the way of state bodies and their desires to do whatever they want to enforce their own little sets of rules.
Sir Christopher had in 2007 told the agency to get better legal advice, but at his next inspection last year found the situation unchanged. "When I raised this matter with the Chief Prosecutor he was disappointed that trespass was still occurring," he said.
That explains the huge number of police investigations and pending prosecutions I've read about then...
Oops, sorry, still a bit jet lagged... just got back from Cloud Cuckoo Land, where the government does get prosecuted for apparently breaking the law.
lojack your car and surveil you from a network of orbiting satellites. Open your mail copy, your data storage decices, listen to you while your on the job with whomsoever, and have cunning operatives follow you around all day. Interview everyone you have ever and will ever have met. Oh and probably scan your brainwaves from their black helicopters.
Seems very reasonable "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" ..can I provide you with a rectal Xray while your rummaging around in there?
Just when are we going to fight back against the Nu Liebour Stasi? Cos I'm thoroughly fed up with this sheyite!
The EA can already quite happily walk onto private property if they suspect that you are breaking a number of waste laws. These are enshrined into the individual regulations for areas such as the Waste and contaminated lands,and the various Water pollution regulations. I can see the RIPA stuff extending their surveilance powers, and with organised crime a major factor in the illegal waste sector that seems sensible to me. Domestic waste is your councils problem not EA's so why don't you have a word with your local elected councillor. BTW wouldn't you rather the local police be nabbing the local hoodies rather than looking into crimes which require a degree in Environmental Science to understand. That is also why magistrates keep letting people off with ludicrously low fines for major pollution.
If the government passes a law to force every product to be fitted with RFID tags, then they can log every product made, where and when it was sold, and to whom and then they can also log who threw it away and if they can't find out who threw it away, they can go back to fine and punish the person who bought it. Then they can create a country wide huge government department to police the fining of criminal offenders which would earn that government department millions in fines every year. Also being the bosses of such a powerful and richly earning department would bring huge financial rewards for the bosses. They could then have performance bonuses based on how many millions they earn from catching and fining criminals. It would generate the government millions while helping to sort out the criminal offenders. It would also mean they could then use the dustmen in the same way the firemen were used in the film Fahrenheit 451 as the dustmen could then police people's rubbish throwing away habits and punish any criminal offenders they find.
What I find absolutely remarkable and very shocking is that even just 10 years ago, it would have been totally unthinkable that we could be discussing such open spying. The bosses of the dustmen actually want to spy on us all! ... plus trespass ... (and I don't care about whatever self important title they pick for themselves this month, I'll just call them the bosses of the dustmen).
So I would just like to ask, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?... What are we coming to? ... Why can they even *think* about being given the power to spy on us all! ... let along actually seeking to gain such power!
Are we all to be endlessly placated into just accepting every more spying on us all? Is everyone going to be made to feel alone, seemingly trapped and surrounded in a world of moronic powerless sheeple or is that all just part of the self-fulfilling prophecy trap that the people in power want us all to believe. They want us to feel alone and powerless, while their power to rule over us grows day by day as they exploit ever more technology to spy and control us all. The one thing everyone in power always fears, is if their people stand up and stand together against them, as the people in power wouldn't have a chance and they know it.
Yet shocking news like this shows once again our ruling elite's endless desire to abuse their position of power over us and the law and new technology to find ever more ways to control us all. Plus they show they would even consider going as far as spying on us, in their endless desire to fine, punish and bully us all into doing what they want, when they want and how they want. Plus don't ever dare oppose their will or they will tag you for closer scrutiny so they can punish you ever more. (Enforcing fines they would normally overlook for good behavior (good as in not opposing their power over us). After all, they are our masters. They make the rules and we must follow what they want. Technology makes them ever more powerful and richer while we all get ever more monitored, controlled, fined and bullied into doing what our self important controllers want to punish us into doing.
What a wonderful world we are heading into. Are our ruling elite trying to start a revolution against them all or are they so lost in their ivory towers that their self important arrogance is blinding them to the growing pressure and anger they are creating against themselves? They seem totally unaware that every control forced on people in turn creates a pressure for change away from that control. Yet they are adding ever more controls onto us all faster than at any other point in history. How long do they expect us all to keep enduring this treatment?!
If the EA wants those powers, it must create transparency on what it does with it. No more "we can't tell you that" - no, clarity. In addition, every officer so engaged MUST be monitored in a similar way. If they follow proper procedure they should have nothing to hide and should thus not have a problem with this (I admit being amused using this argument).
The approach has two advantages: it's educational (feel as your victims) and it proves correct behaviour. If they go and play games - well, that's what that thing "accountability" is for. I know it's only a dim and distant memory, but by golly what a comeback it'll make..
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