Charlie's Diary

[ Site Index] [ Feedback ]


Fri, 01 Nov 2002

Big Brother in Green Wellies

Here in the overwhelmingly urban UK, about 2-3% of the population live in the countryside. We're overwhelmingly a city-based society; about 40% of 12 year olds don't know that eggs come out of a hen's arse, according to one recent "shock horror" survey. There's a political dimension to this demographic, too. Countryfolk are disproportionately more likely to vote conservative than city-dwellers, and tend to have hobbies that are seen as odd by their urban cousins -- huntin', shootin', and wearing green wellington [rubber] boots.

Today, there is a certain element of acrimony between country dwellers and their overwhelmingly elected-by-the-urban-proletariat government. The government is seen as not giving a shit about the country -- the collapse of the agricultural sector in the UK is one aspect of this (as Dave Bell and other readers of this blog can attest), but there are weirder conflicts in the mix. For years there has been a vociferous anti-hunting lobby in the UK. Hunting here isn't a matter of guys in orange vests shooting birds; it's about Hooray Henries in red jackets riding horses after a pack of dogs, in pursuit of a hapless fox (which usually gets torn apart by the hounds when they catch it). While the core of the anti-hunting lobby is motivated by the ideology of animal rights -- and they comment, rightly, that other forms of animal cruelty such as bear-baiting and cock-fighting are criminalised -- there's also a class aspect to the dispute: hunting with hounds costs lots of money (you need to have a horse, for starters), and is seen as an upper-class pursuit.

Legislation was passed by the Scottish parliament last year banning hunting wild animals with hounds, and is in progress in the main Westminster parliament (to cover England and Wales). This didn't go unopposed; there's a large lobbying organisation, the Countryside Alliance, who strongly object to the way the urban-dominated parliament is running the country, and the CA is capable of organising a very big demonstration on occasion.

What isn't so well known is that the Countryside Alliance has some unsavoury habits. Organisations in the UK that maintain databases of information about individuals have to register what information they store in accordance with the Data Protection Act. According to this report in The Guardian, the Countryside Alliance has some rather odd information on file; in their 27-page compliance declaration, it turns out that they maintain data on the religious, sexual, political, and criminal history of their opponents, using data from sources including private detectives, political groups, police and debt collection firms. It's not clear how many enemies are in the CA's database, but they hold records on their 400,000 supporters -- and insiders at the Data Protection Registrar's office regard the information they collect as rather excessive.

So. Don't like fox hunting? Ever wondered what those guys in trench coats are doing outside your front door? Now you know: it's the Green Wellington Gestapo detectives.

Now, here's another fun piece of legislation from our liberty loving government; the Lord Chancellor's department has just issued a consultation document (comments required by January 31st) proposing to remove the right of individuals to demand copies of data held on them by registered organisations in order to correct it, in accordance with the terms of the Data Protection Act.

The DPA is one of the keystones of data privacy law in the UK. Basically, if a credit reference agency screws up their record of you, you have the legal right to demand a copy of the data they hold on you and submit corrections (in return for a basic fee to cover expenses). Nominally an attempt to harmonize the DPA with the rest of EU practice and the new Freedom of Information Act, the new proposal would, ah, reduce the scope for embarrassment on the part of large data-collecting entities. Like the Countryside Alliance. Or the government.

Score: Private Citizens: 0, Big Brother: 1.

[ Link 1 ] [ Link 2 ] [ Discuss Big Brother ]



posted at: 19:57 | path: /misc | permanent link to this entry

specials:

Is SF About to Go Blind? -- Popular Science article by Greg Mone
Unwirer -- an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction
Inside the MIT Media Lab -- what it's like to spend a a day wandering around the Media Lab
"Nothing like this will be built again" -- inside a nuclear reactor complex


Quick links:

RSS Feed (Moved!)

Who am I?

Contact me


Buy my books: (FAQ)

Missile Gap
Via Subterranean Press (US HC -- due Jan, 2007)

The Jennifer Morgue
Via Golden Gryphon (US HC -- due Nov, 2006)

Glasshouse
Via Amazon.com (US HC -- due June 30, 2006)

The Clan Corporate
Via Amazon.com (US HC -- out now)

Accelerando
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB -- due June 27, 2006)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB)
Free download

The Hidden Family
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)

The Family Trade
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)

Iron Sunrise
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB)

The Atrocity Archives
Via Amazon.com (Trade PB)
Via Amazon.co.uk (Trade PB)
Via Golden Gryphon (HC)
Via Amazon.com (HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (HC)

Singularity Sky
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)
Via Amazon.com (US ebook)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB)

Toast
Via Amazon.com
Via Amazon.co.uk


Some webby stuff I'm reading:


Engadget ]
Gizmodo ]
The Memory Hole ]
Boing!Boing! ]
Futurismic ]
Walter Jon Williams ]
Making Light (TNH) ]
Crooked Timber ]
Junius (Chris Bertram) ]
Baghdad Burning (Riverbend) ]
Bruce Sterling ]
Ian McDonald ]
Amygdala (Gary Farber) ]
Cyborg Democracy ]
Body and Soul (Jeanne d'Arc)  ]
Atrios ]
The Sideshow (Avedon Carol) ]
This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow) ]
Jesus's General ]
Mick Farren ]
Early days of a Better Nation (Ken MacLeod) ]
Respectful of Otters (Rivka) ]
Tangent Online ]
Grouse Today ]
Hacktivismo ]
Terra Nova ]
Whatever (John Scalzi) ]
GNXP ]
Justine Larbalestier ]
Yankee Fog ]
The Law west of Ealing Broadway ]
Cough the Lot ]
The Yorkshire Ranter ]
Newshog ]
Kung Fu Monkey ]
S1ngularity ]
Pagan Prattle ]
Gwyneth Jones ]
Calpundit ]
Lenin's Tomb ]
Progressive Gold ]
Kathryn Cramer ]
Halfway down the Danube ]
Fistful of Euros ]
Orcinus ]
Shrillblog ]
Steve Gilliard ]
Frankenstein Journal (Chris Lawson) ]
The Panda's Thumb ]
Martin Wisse ]
Kuro5hin ]
Advogato ]
Talking Points Memo ]
The Register ]
Cryptome ]
Juan Cole: Informed comment ]
Global Guerillas (John Robb) ]
Shadow of the Hegemon (Demosthenes) ]
Simon Bisson's Journal ]
Max Sawicky's weblog ]
Guy Kewney's mobile campaign ]
Hitherby Dragons ]
Counterspin Central ]
MetaFilter ]
NTKnow ]
Encyclopaedia Astronautica ]
Fafblog ]
BBC News (Scotland) ]
Pravda ]
Meerkat open wire service ]
Warren Ellis ]
Brad DeLong ]
Hullabaloo (Digby) ]
Jeff Vail ]
The Whiskey Bar (Billmon) ]
Groupthink Central (Yuval Rubinstein) ]
Unmedia (Aziz Poonawalla) ]
Rebecca's Pocket (Rebecca Blood) ]


Older stuff:

June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
(I screwed the pooch in respect of the blosxom entry datestamps on March 28th, 2002, so everything before then shows up as being from the same time)



[ Site Index] [ Feedback ]


Powered by Blosxom!