There’s been discussions here in Sweden on non-english blogs and forums in regards to just when a citizen should stand up and say “Stop this madness!”, instead of being caught in a machinery where you can’t protest, as you’ll be shot or jailed when doing so.
My guess is that the United Kingdom is not that very far from that point and now would be the time to stand up against the madness going on on their island. Caught this little poster via BoingBoing (with creds to Shardcore):

*shrug*
I mean please. This single statement is an outright lie as it has been broken several times. They might provide a marginal level of increased security around the specific streets where they are, but in some cases just move the crimes to other streets in the vicinity. Not even this has been fully established though. Even Scotland Yard says CCTV monitoring do not prevent crime for crying out loud!
It feels like they’re trying to say it like a Japanese manga character or something, like “More CCTV!!! *big eyes* Means More Security For You!!!! *freakishly large smile* *happy* *happy*”… Maybe it’s just in my brain
Another thing I react to as a person working with security is that there can’t be a sound risk assessment in the bottom of the decisions to put up more camera’s and set up more monitoring stations. The risk of a crime does not motivate the cost of the “protection” so to speak. This is something that Bruce Schneier mentions in his article from which I stole all the links above.
Anyways, I think that the UK is setting a bad example for Europe and the risk for the rest of the countries in the region is that our governments point at them saying “It works over there!” even though it doesn’t and then we’re back were we are with the FRA-law, EU IPRED1 and the EU Data Retention.










