Privacy

My daughter - in - law, Sue, has been understandably annoyed by a recent intrusion into her and others' privacy by supermarket giant, Tesco. Tesco has been allowing microchips to be implanted into the packaging of certain products and as customers who buy the item leave the shop, the chip triggers a camera which photographs the customer. This is apparently then used for customer profiling. I assume they have some kind of experts like the fab five who can work out which people are wearing Gucci to shop. I can just picture Carson Kressley shaking his blonde hair, setting his mouth to 'stun' and saying something mordant about sweatpants.

Brits are pretty used to the all-seeing eye, if you are in a town or city centre you are probably rarely outside the range of a camera. Likewise if you are on a main road. This is going to feature even more heavy artillery soon as cameras will be increased in range and number to stop people from drinking and using mobile phones whilst driving.

I have never had any problem with this. I think partly that is because when you are brought up as a Protestant and I've no doubt this is also true for Catholics, you know that God is watching every small thing you do and in fact even knows your thoughts. Compared with God's omniscience, the camera does sweet Fanny Adams.

There have also been a number of high profile cases where security cameras have caught the guilty and this serves to make us feel safer. You would be amazed at how much of the school where I used to work and where Austen still works, could be seen on camera and the clarity of it. The parents were always whingeing that we had cameras in the toilets.... yeah...no. There were limits.

Canadians do NOT feel the same way. There are privacy laws here which stop most of the camera spying. Since I am really not actually aware of the cameras in Britain, I hadn't really missed them. Even the speed cameras have gone the way of all things. I personally think that it would be a great help to the police and the public to have a few security cameras around the place, but people get quite agitated about the whole topic. Schade.

Austen passed on to me a story that had been in the press recently about a man who was caught on a security camera having a bit of one-handed self-fulfilment. The police tried to prosecute him for indecency but the judge threw it out, saying that you couldn't offend a camera. Quite right too.

Now some Canadians might feel quite threatened by the idea that it could be possible to be caught on camera having a quick J Arthur ..... not the ones who live within driving distance of the Nature Park however.

Last Friday, and this is far from an isolated incident, two of the Park's staff were astonished to see a naked rump giving it the the old pump action in broad daylight in the car park. After trying to get the attention of the rump's owner by more subtle means - revving up next to the vehicle, loudly banging doors etc. - one of them went to speak to the occupants of the car. By this time Mr. Rumpie-Pumpie was doing up his flies but his rumpee was lying fully UNclothed across the seat. Let's just say the RCMP were mentioned, there was fluster and bluster and the couple left. Personally I think we should install a camera in that corner of the car park. Damn the privacy laws, we could make money for the Nature Park and the stars of the show could enjoy some celebrity.