The unfreedom of the open road (3)
There was a government announcement on the radio news today that shocked even me by its sheer audacity. The Transport Secretary, Alastair Darling, announced that the government is planning a scheme to charge motor vehicle users by the mile to drive on Britain's roads. How is it planning to do this? Through satellite tracking of every single vehicle on every single road, even the meanest single-track country lane. I thought I'd become inured to the NuLabor State's authoritarianism and its yen for 24/7 surveillance on everyone, from birth to death, but this really took my breath away. When this scheme comes in, in 10 or so years' time, the State will know exactly where and who you are, if you're in a car, at any time. It's bad enough now, with licence plate recognition technology installed on every motorway and many A roads, but at least you can escape the ubiquitous TV camera on quieter B roads and country lanes. When this comes in, the State will have complete surveillance on you.
The BBC reports, as befits the establishment's broadcaster, barely mentioned any 'civil liberties implications', concentrating instead on doubts as to whether the scheme will a) work, and b) pay for itself. C4 did at least mention 'Big Brother' worries, to which Darling replied that all these issues would have to be "bottomed out", whatever that means. He then went on to blithely say that some new cars were already fitted with tracking boxes, and that this would be standard on new cars in a decade's time. Has the State really stitched up an agreement with motor manufacturers to put a surveillance box in all cars, and if so when was it announced, if it was announced at all?
The ostensible aim of this scheme is to cut traffic congestion, but if you believe that you really will believe anything, and there's a bridge in New York I think you'd be interested in buying. There are so many easier ways to cut congestion - cheap and plentiful public transport being favourite, coupled with reduction of subsidies to road freight to get bloody wagons and their Yorkie-choffing pseudo-macho reactionary fatboy drivers off the roads. This would be an order of magnitude cheaper than the sophisticated bleeding edge - and bleeding expensive, and bleeding profitable for firms like Crapita and EDS - technology, logistics, bureaucracy, and cops needed to make the total surveillance scheme work.
But of course it's nowt to do with the figleaf reason, and everything to do with the State making authoritarian hay whilst the sun shines (see previous post to the Hamster weblog), whilst the populace is so cowed/thick/disinterested/scared to protest. The cracker about this scheme is that it immediately divides and rules middle-class liberals, who are about the only folk making a ruckus about freedoms (mainly because the working classes under the camera have no voice left). By cutting congestion and road traffic, the scheme puts the State onside with all the Greenies, who'll simply say to anyone concerned that freedom of movement is going west: "what's more important: the planet or a few civil liberties?" And, for liberals, the environment will trump anything. Even the report in the Guardian, that weathervane of liberal opinion, barely mentioned implications for freedom and instead focussed on the Green angle.
It'll be interesting to see what the more radical Left, what's left of it in the UK, reacts to this. Anti-capitalists and No Globals (as the Italians call them) have been bitterly opposed to ID cards and other authoritarian measures, but then they're very much anti road expansion and 'car culture', so maybe they'll find themselves split as the 'moderate' liberals are. I do hope not.
Charging plan aims to prevent road gridlock. The Guardian, 6/6/05.
The BBC reports, as befits the establishment's broadcaster, barely mentioned any 'civil liberties implications', concentrating instead on doubts as to whether the scheme will a) work, and b) pay for itself. C4 did at least mention 'Big Brother' worries, to which Darling replied that all these issues would have to be "bottomed out", whatever that means. He then went on to blithely say that some new cars were already fitted with tracking boxes, and that this would be standard on new cars in a decade's time. Has the State really stitched up an agreement with motor manufacturers to put a surveillance box in all cars, and if so when was it announced, if it was announced at all?
The ostensible aim of this scheme is to cut traffic congestion, but if you believe that you really will believe anything, and there's a bridge in New York I think you'd be interested in buying. There are so many easier ways to cut congestion - cheap and plentiful public transport being favourite, coupled with reduction of subsidies to road freight to get bloody wagons and their Yorkie-choffing pseudo-macho reactionary fatboy drivers off the roads. This would be an order of magnitude cheaper than the sophisticated bleeding edge - and bleeding expensive, and bleeding profitable for firms like Crapita and EDS - technology, logistics, bureaucracy, and cops needed to make the total surveillance scheme work.
But of course it's nowt to do with the figleaf reason, and everything to do with the State making authoritarian hay whilst the sun shines (see previous post to the Hamster weblog), whilst the populace is so cowed/thick/disinterested/scared to protest. The cracker about this scheme is that it immediately divides and rules middle-class liberals, who are about the only folk making a ruckus about freedoms (mainly because the working classes under the camera have no voice left). By cutting congestion and road traffic, the scheme puts the State onside with all the Greenies, who'll simply say to anyone concerned that freedom of movement is going west: "what's more important: the planet or a few civil liberties?" And, for liberals, the environment will trump anything. Even the report in the Guardian, that weathervane of liberal opinion, barely mentioned implications for freedom and instead focussed on the Green angle.
It'll be interesting to see what the more radical Left, what's left of it in the UK, reacts to this. Anti-capitalists and No Globals (as the Italians call them) have been bitterly opposed to ID cards and other authoritarian measures, but then they're very much anti road expansion and 'car culture', so maybe they'll find themselves split as the 'moderate' liberals are. I do hope not.
Articles
Pay-as-you-go road charge plan. BBC News, 6/6/05Charging plan aims to prevent road gridlock. The Guardian, 6/6/05.
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