WRITTEN ON January 30th, 2007 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, What do we want?

For those looking for an absurdist “dark vision” of non-ideal surveillance, look no further than The Sun’s news pages

“OFFICIALS are bracing themselves for a storm of public outrage over their controversial X-ray cameras scheme. As part of the most shocking extension of Big Brother powers ever planned here, lenses in lampposts would snap “naked” pictures of passers-by to trap terror suspects.

The proposal is contained in leaked documents drawn up by the Home Office and presented to PM Tony Blair’s working group on Security, Crime and Justice. But the prospect of the State snooping on individuals’ most private parts is certain to spark national fury. And officials are battling to find a way of dealing with that reaction.

Blair … working group

A January 17 memo seen by The Sun discusses the cameras, which can see through clothes….Cops would also get the power to build a database of everyone in the land. Three-dimensional CCTV pictures would be coupled with records of people’s mobile phones and even their travel cards to get details of their movements and habits. Facial recognition systems to help track individuals’ movements are also being considered”

Wouldn’t it be better if…er, we didnt take “naked” pictures of innocent passers-by from hidden cameras in lamposts? What a modest Wibbi! How about: Wibbi we had government that didnt cede the moral high ground over “nakedness” to crapulent Murdoch tabloids (who love big Brother and want a monopoly on pictures of people’s private parts).