Crowd Control measures- one more brick in the wall

The development of a centrally controlled Orwellian society, surveilled, monitored, photographed, recorded, coralled endlesly and continuously is here.

This is a twin track policy :

1. By top down legislation , limiting freedoms, introducing penalties, levied by an increasing and myriad range of state controlled agencies and their officers .

2. Bottom up methods of crowd control and psyops , by selecting the message, concentrating and massaging the message and criminalising the dissident, re-inforces what the government wants you all to hear and see daily.

Spy Blog is an essential source of this endless wave of legislation and petifogging controls. 2 recent posts that mustn't be missed ....


Gormless Gorden the beleaguered and boxed in Leader announced a slew of new legilsation in a Queen's Speech of his own - the Policing and Crime Reduction Bill was announced - hourse later sneakily amended to remove all references to Sir Clive Booth's police pay review .

The amendment (Amendment to Preparing Britain for the Future - The Government's Draft Legislative Programme 2008-09 Cm 7372 ) was were for crass and inexcusable typos - evidence of undue haste in dafting end publishing, but also it appears a removal of references to Sir Clive Booth's police Pay review.

As an after thought it adds that the new Bill will include - whenever they get round to producing it ... New strategies on crime, drugs, anti-social behaviour, alcohol, police leadership, efficiency and productivity - certainly required in face of the total failure of the policies they have been oursing for 10 years. Also as some form of sick joke is the expected C"ompletion of Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s Independent Review of Policing" - this is the copper whose officers destroyed evidence, told lies , paid state employees to bomb, maim, kill, murder, injure and he couldn't remeber anything about it.

3 days earlier Spy Blog had noted the blow up sex doll , Hazel Blears who sits perkily on the Front Bench has produced a toxic report from the home of Common Purpose - what used to be John Prescott's Deputy PM's Office, bu tGod alone knows what it is called now but the website address is www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk

Hazel Blears and Sergeant Flanderka - "tension monitoring" i.e. snooping on local communities Which relates to a PDF file "Guidance for local authorities on community cohesion contingency planning and tension monitoring " available here

In a forward under the signature of Parmjit Dhanda MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State this makes the claim that ...

It is therefore essential we begin to develop the skills within our communities to recognise, name, manage and resolve conflicts that may arise in the process of community change in order we move towards cohesive communities.

This guide seeks to help those at the sharp end of delivering cohesion to use information collated in a way that helps identify when conflict is likely, and then develop the capacity to create the basket of skills, networks and tools required to prevent it.

i.e Straight out of the Common Purpose Phrase book of concrete obscurantism

Spy Blog points out a significant section ...

37. The most effective way to do this is through establishing a multi-agency tension monitoring group, led by an officer/s from the local authority and/or the local police force. This should include key partners from the statutory sector (e.g. housing, community safety, education, fire service, health, probation/youth offending team, community workers, neighbourhood wardens and police community support officers, National Asylum Support Service), and relevant representatives from the voluntary, community and faith sectors.

The sort of data which Hazel Blears wants to collect and share see page 18 :

• quantitative data (eg police crime statistics and intelligence reports)
• qualitative community intelligence from neighbourhood wardens,
community workers, casework by local councillors and feedback from local
community meetings and organisations
• racially or religiously motivated offences or incidents
• details of new arrivals, refugees and asylum seekers, and Gypsy and Traveller
communities in the local area
• gang and turf conflicts
• neighbour disputes
• complaints of noise nuisance
• examples of poor community/local authority relations, poor community/
police relations/low levels of trust in local politicians
• surveys of community views on reassurance, cohesion and safety matters
• state of local economic activity (decline or improvement)
• financial and social investment in the area
• demand for housing and condition of the local housing stock
• plans for renewal and the sustainability of planned or actual improvements
• political extremism
• media reports.

What caught our eye was a section on "Working with the media"

e.g On Page 39 - Middlesbrough Council

The council has close links to the editor of the Evening Gazette, the main local newspaper, who also sits on the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). This helps to ensure that press and media related issues are considered in cohesion contingency planning.

On Page 40 - Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council

The Berwick Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) is working with the local press/media to vet stories involving migrant workers from Eastern Europe and Portugal employed in the food processing and agricultural sectors to prevent stigmatisation.

They even have a nifty pamphlet - available only to those signed in to the Ministry of Truth's website

Working withthe media
I&DeA Toolkit: Building a relationship with the media
www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=81965

PS : re Vetting stories on migrant workers might be the reason that the story of the success of the GLA recently in Scotland and available here Wednesday, May 07, 2008 GLA crackdown on supermarket suppliers of daffodils received no Press coverage in Scotland and a Google search shows that only the BBC and the Times covered it.

Just to remind readers of the offences that the Gangmaster Mr Jonathan Beckson, Director of Timberland Homes Ltd, trading as Timberland Homes Recruitment committed -

GLA inspectors uncovered a lengthy series of offences ;
• A threatening letter to workers stating that they were not free to leave before the end of the contract without paying £700, and if they did not have the money this would be recovered from the workers or their families in their home country.

• Timberland were subcontracting workers from an unlicensed Polish gangmaster

• Some workers stated that they received £24 for a nine hour day

• Workers received 4p per bunch of flowers picked

• No timesheets were used, so pay could not be accurately recorded

• Scottish Agricultural Minimum Wage was not being paid

• VOSA had issued prohibition notices on six Timberland minibuses in Cornwall and Timberland flouted the law by transporting the workers to Scotland in these vehicles and continued to use these minibuses for transportation of workers there on a daily basis

• Grampian and Tayside Police Forces took combined action regarding the use of the minibuses, forcing the operator to reduce seating capacity due to their ‘unlicensed’ status. Reports regarding the vehicles’ use have been submitted to Scottish Procurators’ Fiscal regarding consideration of prosecution of the firm

• Workers did not give their consent for transport and accommodation deductions

• Workers were charged for the protective clothing needed to carry out the job

• Six to eight workers shared rooms in converted farm buildings that were not licensed as houses of multiple occupation

• There were not enough beds for the 43 workers and only 4 toilets between them.

• The Kitchen facilities were poor and used bedding and laundry was kept in the cooking area thus creating a serious hygiene and fire hazard

• Tayside Fire and Rescue inspected the accommodation at the request of the GLA and found the premises to be unsatisfactory and issued a report stating that it should be rectified without delay.

The GLA is passing the information on this case to the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC).

Evidently a story worth vetting as the 7Mn bunches of daffodils they picked, ended up on the shelves at Tesco's etc.,

FOOTNOTE : Mc cain ttled through his ideals for his first (?) term in office , all that he and the nation wants, without a word of how to acheive it. Which is a bit like Gormless Gordon's ueens speech .. and as a blogger commenting on McCain's lofty ideals remarked. HOPE IS NOT A PLAN