Eclectic Trains

I'm being pursued by a theme. This theme haunts my peripheral vision and nags at the fringes of my imagination. Surveillance. CCTV. Big Brother.

Why now? 'Where have you been for the last 15 years?' some might say. Sure, I've been perplexed and angered by the rapid rise of Surveillance UK for a long time but the full democratic toll of a wired Britain has just begun to grate on me that little bit harder.

It started with a walk through the park near my office in Bethnal Green late last year and has ended up with a walk down Whitehall on Tuesday (26/02/08) of this week. In between there has been the bugged Labour MP, the wonderful HBO TV series 'The Wire' in box set DVD form and the less convincing series 'The Last Enemy' from the BBC. Not to mention a continuous stream of comment and analysis from journalists who cry that "it has gone too far".

It certainly has.

And then, just as I thought I had escaped the BIG THEME, along came
the DVD of 'The Lives of Others'. Devastating. A damning take on the lack freedom in the former GDR and a severe warning about the future of Surveillance UK.

Part 2 will follow shortly.