Poole gets into a murky puddle!

Following on from the snooping by Poole Borough Council, the couple at the centre of the Starsi-like surveillance have broken cover, so to speak. They are, quite rightly, outraged by this. It would appear that most of the country is too.

However, the shameless John Nash (pictured), who is the council's Director of Children's Services says, "We believe we act responsibly, in the best interests of people who live in Poole, using these powers. We do not believe we are MI5 or Rebus or James Bond or anyone else. We try to do it responsibly and we believe we have taken appropriate action, given the information that was passed to us." If he thinks for one minute that TWO WEEKS of stalking, spying, and generally acting like minions in a police state is "acting responsibly", then he must be a very silly man indeed. Or possibly warped? How would he like a newspaper to get a journalist to follow his every move for two weeks? I'm not suggesting that would be a good idea either, but it is something that people dislike and he may dislike it too.

Mr. Nash could have asked this couple straight away what was happening. He chose not to. That put's him in the creepy closet of New Labour apparatchiks. Blair insisted that this new law would not be abused, but then he has always been a man for whom the truth was something akin to believing in fairies. It is a calamity that the Tory and Liberal Democrat leaderships seem totally silent on this. Poole Council is Tory controlled. What a shower, calling themselves Conservatives!

My question is this. Is Mr. Nash a suitable person to be in charge of children's services? Maybe a visit to China could persuade him to change his ways!

George Orwell's 1984 alive in Poole, Dorset!

Under the New Labour fright regime, spying on innocent people is a functioning aspect of our lives. The council in Poole, Dorset have taken advantage of the anti-terror laws brought in by the Blair part of this disgraceful government. Poole Borough Council has disclosed that it had legitimately used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on a family. This family had be "shopped" to the council by an unknown person. For two weeks the middle-class family was followed by council officials who wanted to establish whether they had given a false address within the catchment area of an oversubscribed school to secure a place for their three-year-old.

The investigators were too dim to find this out in less than TWO WEEKS! I think it monstrous that anybody in Poole BC thinks that applying such terror tactics is something to be tolerated in Britain today. Mike White is the Cabinet member for education. He boldly promotes this on the council website. "I feel 35 years business background gives me something to offer. I enjoy getting things done and giving something back to the community." Surely he doesn't mean signing up to the horrors of the New Labour fright regime? This man is a Conservative. I cannot believe he was not told of such action by his officials. It is almost unprecedented to use the terror laws to spy on people in this way. He could have found out by merely asking the people involved. A few quick checks would have either rumbled them or found them to be innocent, which in fact they were! Shame on you, Mr. White (or should you now be Mr. Off White?).

According to the Daily Telegraph, the "spies" made copious notes on the movements of the mother and her three children, who they referred to as "targets" as they were trailed on school runs. The snoopers even watched the family home at night to establish where they were sleeping. I am totally opposed to spin and deceit from politicians and totally opposed to draconian laws in a free democracy. This was OTT big time!

The mother at the centre of this spying said,"I'm incensed that legislation designed to combat terrorism can be turned on a three-year-old. It was very creepy when we found out that people had been watching us and making notes. Councils should be protecting children, not spying on them." Exactly!

Poole Borough Council - get your act together, for goodness sake! You are Conservative controlled, but that does NOT mean you control people. This is a very un-Conservative piece of 1984-style control freakery!