David Gray's pictures of the week 26-2-2007

DAVID GRAY photography
	B I G B R O T H E R B R I T A I N
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 2 6 - 2 - 2 0 0 7

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The subject of this week's picture set is Big Brother Britain. There are more CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras in the UK than throughout the whole of the rest of Western Europe. When they first appeared, their rationale was said to be the prevention of street crime. All well and good, but now they have multiplied in number and purpose far beyond anything imagined by George Orwell in "1984", his classic novel about a controlled society. Wherever you go nowadays, there are cameras watching for the slightest infringement of the rules. Speeding and parking, drinking and smoking, dropping litter and, of course, bombing. If only bombers were stopped by cameras. The trouble is that the average suicide bomber probably wants his ghastly final act preserved on film. Big Brother may be all-seeing, but all too often he's also useless.

Rubbish camera sign with graffiti in Brighton in February 2007 (image 2713-38)

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