WTFFF?

[denny]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/15/vehicle_movement_database/

"A '24x7 national vehicle movement database' that logs everything on the UK's roads and retains the data for at least two years is now being built, according to an Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) strategy document leaked to the Sunday Times."

This is getting way beyond a joke. Not to mention the general invasion of privacy the article is focussing on, there's also this line:

"The new offence of keeping a vehicle without insurance criminalises the previously harmless pastime of keeping an uninsured vehicle in a garage and not driving it". What kind of crime is that exactly? Who is the victim?? Fucking hell.


Oh, and while we're on the general subject of our not-a-police-state-honest, this from nullstr:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4438060.stm

Comments

[uberredfraggle.livejournal.com]

I remember when that happened as I was still in Oxford and it was in the local paper a lot.

Grrrr.

[naranek.livejournal.com]

It's amazing, what technology can do: I can now be issued with two fixed-penalty notices (failing to display a valid tax disc and driving without insurance - since my insurance requires that I keep my car taxed) whilst driving from the garage to the post office to tax my car. Where I will have to supply a paper MOT certificate and a paper insurance certificate because the records don't exist to check these electronically.

Meanwhile, the Police will be utterly unable to investigate anyone who drives into my car (or girlfriend) and drives off, because they are uninsured, but will then happily prosecute me for doing 75 overtaking a veering lorry in high winds.

Y'know, it's going to be a funny old world when the Wermacht arrive to liberate the UK from its fascist totalitarian expansionist police state.

[grandwazooo.livejournal.com]

I think MOT is computerised from some time next year...

[naranek.livejournal.com]

True, though I suspect that post offices won't be able to check against it for a while longer. The online system should let me avoid the post-office hassle, though, hopefully...

[grandwazooo.livejournal.com]

I would happily continue to cue once a year in the post office - when MOT system goes computerised I doubt I will be able to get the "friendly" MOT my aging chariot needs to stay on the road.
- I doubt I will be the only one either.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Yes, the way that Germany is now the bastion of freedom as the UK abandons the safeguards of democracy is wryly amusing...

[23haxor23.livejournal.com]

Thats definitely not true.

Sadly we are not the safeguards of democracy. :(

And if you don't believe me look at the german passport (it's called ePass yes that word sounds english :) ) with biometric data and RFID chip.

and it is expensive too 59,00 Euro for the normal version and if you want the deluxe version you pay 113,00 Euro

[grandwazooo.livejournal.com]

I am disgusted, but there is nothing I can do.

[23haxor23.livejournal.com]

In germany we already have this.

And yes it sucks.

Although the government is not honest about it's future use.

Officially it is the toll system (it's called TollCollect and yes the german toll system has an english name) and it should be used for the automated billing of trucks but if you look into the specification of the system it is able to track cars at a speed of 200 km/h (i heard also rumors about 250 km/h) and it can even track them if they change the lane at that speed.

I guess only rocket propelled trucks or racing truck are that fast.

It has Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) at highway slip roads. The ANPR is officially only there to find trucks that don't pay their toll.

Most german trucks have a TollCollect on board unit which uses gps to exactly show how long the truck used the highway those units communicate with the system via infrared....

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

Loving the fact that simultaneously, they bring in technology that would make it much simpler to police uninsured drivers and a law which suggests that there's no way of doing so at all!