What does "NICE" mean to you?

The word "Nice," has had more meanings than many other English words. Our modern use of "nice" to mean "pleasant" dates from the middle of the 18th century.

The word “nice” originates from the Latin word "nescius," which means "not knowing" or, more specifically, "ignorant." The French turned "nescius" into "nice," and used it to mean "stupid or simpleminded," and it was this sense that was first carried over into English.

By the fourteenth century "nice" had acquired yet another meaning, that of "wanton or lascivious." In a strange reversal in the fifteenth century, "nice" was used to mean "shy" or "refined," and by the sixteenth century the word had been narrowed down to mean "fastidious or tasteful."

Today we still use this sense in phrases such as "a nice touch" or "a nice distinction." By the middle of the 18th Century it had gained yet another meaning of pleasant and agreeable.

It has evolved to become a word with a high degree of ambiguity in meaning.

A fact best articulated in the following dialogue from Jane Austin’s Northanger Abbey.

“But now really, do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world?”

“The nicest—by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding.”

“Henry,” said Miss Tilney, “you are very impertinent. Miss Morland, he is treating you exactly as he does his sister. He is forever finding fault with me, for some incorrectness of language, and now he is taking the same liberty with you. The word 'nicest,' as you used it, did not suit him; and you had better change it as soon as you can, or we shall be overpowered with Johnson and Blair all the rest of the way.”

“I am sure,” cried Catherine, “I did not mean to say anything wrong; but it is a nice book, and why should not I call it so?”

“Very true,” said Henry, “and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk, and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word indeed! It does for everything. Originally perhaps it was applied only to express neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement—people were nice in their dress, in their sentiments, or their choice. But now every commendation on every subject is comprised in that one word.”

To many people, "niceness" is a positive value to be strived for. A "nice" person is friendly, non-threatening, and not at all controversial. A "nice" meal involves digestible food, moderately pleasant surroundings, and conversation that does not offend.

A "nice" day is a day that’s enjoyable because it fits what can be considered agreeable to human comfort in terms of moderate temperature, abundant sunlight, and low humidity.

For others, "niceness", is despised because it carries connotations of a certain indifference to life's rich tapestry: an acceptance of blandness; possibly an unwillingness to commit.

For some being “nice”, is to be subservient, a person who makes themselves the exact fit to harmonize with the wishes and needs of others. A person who wishes at any expense not to offend.

What does "nice" mean to you?

Finally Justice Secretary Jack Straw has granted Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs "compassionate release" from his prison sentence.

Mr Straw said the decision was based on medical evidence that Biggs's condition had deteriorated and he was not expected to recover.

Biggs, who turns 80 this weekend, is severely ill in hospital with pneumonia and doctors have said there is "not much hope".

Last month Jack Straw rejected Biggs's application for parole on the grounds that the robber was "wholly unrepentant" about his crimes.

Biggs was rushed to the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital from his cell at Norwich prison on Tuesday and will remain on bed watch overnight.The three Prison Service staff watching him will be withdrawn tomorrow, once the licence for his release is finalised.

The decision means Biggs can celebrate his birthday on Saturday a free man. It will be 46 years to the day since the robbery.

Although, given his medical condition it is highly unlikely he will get to enjoy much of a celebration. After a series of strokes, he is bedridden, fed through a tube and barely able to communicate.

But for his devoted son Michael it must come as a slight relief that his father will not die in prison. Michael Biggs has reportedly said: "He is absolutely delighted and he hopes that his father will survive long enough to see his 80th birthday on Saturday.

"Mr Ronald Biggs has been informed today of my decision regarding his application for compassionate release on medical grounds," Straw said in a statement.

What do you think? Do you think Jack Straw should have acted sooner?

Corby family fears for Schapelle's sanity

Whether one think's Schapelle Corby is guilty or not, surely it's time for compassion. She has now spent over five years in an Indonesian jail.

Yes, there are many people rotting in jails around the world in appalling conditions, but if we can only help one at a time, is it not better than none?

The following is a report published by The Daily Telegraph in Australia.

Corby family fears for Schapelle's sanity after so long in jail
By Joe Hildebrand From: The Daily Telegraph July 22, 2009 10:36PM

Corby moved as health worsens

DRUG smuggler Schapelle Corby is so traumatised by her time in jail that she has lost all touch with reality and sometimes even thinks she can walk out any time.

Her condition has so shocked her family that they are begging the Australian Government to send a psychiatrist to Bali to assess her and try to bring her back home for medical care.

Corby's uncle Shaun Hatton has approached broadcaster Alan Jones to put pressure on the Government, while sister Mercedes is understood to be making requests via the official channels.

Mr Hatton said that when he visited Corby last month in a Bali hospital she sat on the floor for an hour and a half, saying nothing and holding a child's toy.
"She goes in and out of lucidity - she's not lucid," he said.
"At one stage she sat on the floor with my daughter's stuffed frog that plays tunes and she was there holding it for 90 minutes without moving."

Mr Hatton said he visited Corby for four or five hours a day for the three days he was there and did not see a doctor the entire time.
She would slip into delusional states in which she would think she could just walk out of custody.
"She thinks she can hop up and go, she'd just start to get ready. She'd change her clothes and say 'let's go'," he said.
"And we'd have to say, 'No Schapelle, you can't'."

Mr Hatton, a Darwin real estate agent, said Corby still maintained her innocence and lived in hope that new evidence would emerge.
"Every day she thinks the nightmare's going to finish. Now she's not thinking lucidly at all," he said.
"She will not admit guilt because she's not guilty."

Mr Hatton said she was in desperate need of medical assessment and care from Australia.
"She's just got to be brought back," he said.

Mr Hatton said she shared a cell with nine others at Kerobokan jail, where she has been returned to serve out her 20-year sentence.

Please visit http://www.schapelle.net/ to see how you can help.

Shapelle Corby a huge case of injustice

On the 8th of October 2004, a 27 year-old Australian tourist, Schapelle Corby, was arrested at Bali Airport when 9 pounds (4.2 kg ) of marijuana was discovered in her luggage.

Corby is currently serving a 20-year sentence. She was convicted and sentenced in Bali on 27 May 2005 and is serving her sentence in Kerobokan Prison, Bali. On appeal, her conviction and sentence were confirmed with finality by the Indonesian Supreme Court. No further legal manoeuvres on her part are possible; she may petition for clemency from Indonesia's president, but in doing so, would have to admit guilt.

Schapelle has maintained from the time of her arrest that the drugs were planted in her boogie board bag and that she had no knowledge of them. Her trial and conviction were a major focus of attention for the Australian and Indonesia media. Her due release date, with remissions, is currently 12 April 2024.

Having spent time in jail myself, and having listened to numerous “I’m innocent stories” from other inmates. I was at first sceptical of her claim.

However, after reading her book, I believe her.

What do you think?

Whose the biggest robber, the Bankers, Gordan Brown or Ronnie Biggs?

Jack Straw’s “Cruel and Barbaric” justice.

A 79-year-old man languishes behind bars, where he has been for the past eight years. His health is shot, he has had three strokes, he cannot speak, needs feeding through a tube and cannot walk unaided. His crime committed 46 years ago in 1963, is no longer a threat to anyone. And last week, the Parole Board recommended his early release.

As Anne Widdecombe rightly said: "The public must be protected, but the public needs protection from a lot of people before they need protection from the person that Ronnie Biggs is now."

Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, has refused Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs parole for being unrepentant about his crime making it almost certain he will die in prison.

A statement released by Jack Straw said: “Mr Biggs chose to serve only one year of a 30-year sentence before he took the personal decision to commit another offence and escape from prison, avoiding capture by travelling abroad for 35 years while outrageously courting the media. Had he complied with his sentence, he would have been a free man many years ago.”

He continued: “Biggs chose not to obey the law and respect the punishments given to him – the legal system in this country deserves more respect than this. It was Mr Biggs’s own choice to offend and he now appears to want to avoid the consequences of his decision. I do not think this is acceptable.Mr Biggs is wholly unrepentant... and does not regret his offending.”

Biggs’s legal adviser, Giovanni Di Stefano, attacked the decision as “perverse”. He said: “All the other Great Train Robbers served a third of their sentences, why should Ronnie Biggs be any different? Ten years is enough. This shows a side of the British Government that is perverse - it is a cruel and unusual punishment.”

Biggs was part of a gang of 15 which robbed the Glasgow to London mail train at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, in August 1963. They stole a record £2.6m and one man was, unfortunately, coshed on the back of the head during the robbery.

Biggs received a 30-year sentence but after 15 months he escaped from Wandsworth prison in south-west London by climbing a 30ft wall and fleeing.

He was on the run for more than 30 years, living in Spain, Australia and Brazil, before returning to the UK voluntarily in 2001 in search of medical treatment. He was taken to Belmarsh prison before being moved to a specialist medical unit at Norwich prison

Scotland Yard's failure to capture Biggs had been extensively, and gleefully, reported in the press around the world. The public loved it as the dectective, known as, "Slipper of the Yard" failed to get his man.

Did the newspapers and other media who profited so hugely from Biggs escapades ever give any of it to the one (unplanned for) injured man in the robbery?

According to Mr Straw: "Biggs chose not to obey the law and respect the punishments given to him – the legal system in this country deserves more respect than this."

Maybe it does, if one could respect it. But the vindictive treatment of a frail old man whose greatest offence, whatever else Mr Straw says, was to cock a snook at the British police for several decades hardly reflects agreeably on our legal system.

Jack Straw advices our judges not to jail violent criminals yet he insists a frail old man, who 46 years ago robbed a train and is now just months from death, must rot in jail.

Today Britain, has the reputation of been the most violent country in Europe - and even more violent than South Africa.

Releasing this sick old man would, I think, have been both a humane gesture and a relief for prison over-crowding. Two good deeds in one risk-free gesture.

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to Michael, Ronnie Bigg’s son, who has unselfishly supported his father. I once had the pleasure of meeting Michael in Palma, and was struck, not only by his good looks, but by his meek manner and courteous behaviour.

Michael, is another victim of Jack Straw’s “cruel and barbaric” justice.

What is your opinion?

Identity Card U turn or Government stealth?

British citizens will never be forced to carry ID cards, the Government announced today.

A trial scheme that was to force some airport staff at Manchester and the City of London to carry the controversial cards has been scrapped. Airport workers never wanted to be guinea pigs for this deeply unpopular scheme.

The home secretary Mr Johnson said: 'I want the introduction of identity cards for all British citizens to be voluntary and I have therefore decided that identity cards issued to airside workers, planned initially at Manchester and London City airports later this year, should also be voluntary.'

Previously, ministers said ID cards could become compulsory once 80 per cent of the population was covered.

The government said: 'Holding an identity card should be a personal choice for British citizens - just as it is now to obtain a passport.'

The announcement means that foreign nationals in the UK will be the only group of people who will be forced to carry the cards.

The rollout of the ID card scheme will now be accelerated on a purely voluntary basis for UK citizens at £30 per card, starting in Greater Manchester by the end of the year.

A pilot scheme covering Greater Manchester will be extended to the whole of the North West of England from early next year, Mr Johnson said.

Everyone who wants a card, or a biometric passport, will have their details stored on the national identity register.

Civil liberties groups said this amounted to a compulsory scheme.

Isabella Sankey, director of policy for Liberty, said: 'The Home Secretary needs to be clear as to whether entry on to the National Identity Register will continue to be automatic when applying for a passport.

'If so, the identity scheme will be compulsory in practice. However you spin it, big ears, four legs and a long trunk still make an elephant.’

The ID card has been proposed as a way of countering terrorism, identity theft and misuse of public services and also as a way of proving the carrier's age and identity generally.

Cards are linked to the National Identity Register, a centralised database intended to hold information such as fingerprints, facial and iris scans, past and present addresses.

Crucially, the databanks would be indexed to other Government records, allowing them to be cross-referenced.

The register has been pilloried by civil liberties campaigners as an Orwellian tool of state power that would be easily open to abuse.

Next year young people opening bank accounts are to be encouraged to obtain ID cards and over the following two years anyone getting a passport will get one - but can opt out.

On the surface, it seems as though the government has done a u-turn but I find a few issues with this:

1. The governmant has made no denials that it will sell access to the database.

2. It will be difficult to obtain some services without a card (ie banks have welcomed the ID card idea and will be the first to buy the service). Many organisations will make it impossible to obtain products/services without a card.

3. The government will claim that "we haven't forced you to have an ID card" and lay the blame on organisations rather than on the part of stealth by them.
Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have said they would scrap the scheme if they came into power. But what will happen to the database?

What do you think?

So what exactly is Twitter?

Are you any the wiser?

Twitter

Of course, I have digressed from my original post, of how to go about publicizing my book.

Well over 100,000 books are published each year. With bookstores jammed from floor to ceiling it seems the odds are stacked against the author’s book becoming that longed for Best-Seller.

How do you get word out that you have written a book? That it’s a great book and entertaining and people will love it?

The first piece of advice I received was to join face-book. That led to me ranting about the surveillance society.

I then started to hear about “Twitter”. It seemed that everywhere I went the word would pop up and every newspaper I picked up had some mention of “Twitter”.

I decided to go on-line and have a look. Find out what it was all about. I opened a "Twitter" account and that was as far as I got. In fact, I forgot all about it.

That is until two days later when I checked my emails.

DowningStreet is now following you on Twitter!

Monday, 16 February, 2009 9:52 AM
From:
"Twitter"

To:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi, judy marks

DowningStreet (DowningStreet) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out DowningStreet's profile here:
http://twitter.com/DowningStreet


Best,
Twitter

Oh my God, it’s that damned Big Brother again!!!

Amber Marks and Who's Invading Your 'Headspace'

Buy Amber's book now. You won't regret it.

"HEADSPACE" by Amber Marks

Many people reading my posts may get the impression that I am against modern technology. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I love technology. I love the advances in medicine. I love the convenience of mobile phones and I absolutely adore the internet.

But what terrifies the life out of me is the steady erosion of privacy and the slow descent, (which in recent years appears to be quickening) into the Orwellian nightmare of 1984.

Supporters of the surveillance society continually bleat “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear”.

I for one do not subscribe to this. I have my privacy and my liberty to fear for.

One of the best books about the ‘surveillance society’ is HeadSpace, by my daughter Amber Marks.

The book is an investigation into surveillance and especially scent-related technologies.

In the book Amber raises concerns about how our privacy and freedom has been seriously undermined by successive British and other governments.

Amber raises some fascinating legal points, both theoretical and from precedent, as well as raising real and pressing human rights issues.

“Headspace" is genuinely well researched, insightful and investigative writing at its best.

And miraculously, despite it being such a serious subject she manages also to inject humour into the content.

To buy your copy click on the cover below.

To find out more about Amber follow the links below;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Marks

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/31/internationalcrime

http://www.kbkcl.co.uk/2008/08/amber_marks/

Cashless Society

The Human Chip is slowly becoming more and more of a reality.

What do you think?

ID Cards For Manchester

Tony Blair’s government chose Manchester as the surprise location of Britain's first Las Vegas-style super-casino. Gordon Brown, when he became the unelected prime-minister shelved the plans.

Now the residents of Greater Manchester will be the first in the country to get identity cards.

Identity cards are already in use by foreign nationals to show that they have the right-to-work in the UK.

The credit card-size ID cards will carry fifty separate pieces of personal data including face scans and fingerprints securely encrypted onto an electronic chip.

A huge database will store the collected information which will become a magnet for con artists. The growing catalogue of lost data and missing discs has already illustrated the Government cannot be trusted with personal sensitive information.

Highlighting the feebleness of the argument “if you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothing to fear” that champions of the cards so readily proclaim.

Residents will be able to apply for a £30 card from the autumn to enjoy the privilege of Labor’s stasi agents harassing them. Local residents wanting to apply for a card have been told to sign up on the governments Directgov web site which will inform users when the cards become available in their area.

Because the ID cards are so despised by British citizens the Government can only proceed to introduce them by stealth. From Manchester the voluntary scheme will gradually cover the rest of the country until they can be made mandatory in 2012

The Home Office is planning to allow post offices, high street pharmacies and photographic shops to offer application processing services.

Jacqui Smith said that it will not only be private companies that benefit from offering the service. "Their customers will benefit from being able to quickly provide their biometrics while they are out doing the shopping," she said.

Almost as if giving such personal information was no more important than buying a tube of toothpaste.

The government claims the scheme will offer increased protection against identity fraud and help protect communities against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists trying to exploit multiple identities.

They argue that, “Many people currently use their passport for such purposes but it is not a terribly convenient method and 300,000 of them are either lost or stolen every year.”

But what is to say that ID cards will not be lost or stolen?

The news of the voluntary scheme comes as airline pilots said they would boycott a compulsory ID card scheme for workers at Manchester and London City airports which will also be launched in the autumn.

Critics say the scheme is nothing more than an expensive risk to privacy.

Allied to mass surveillance of the population, monitoring of all telephone calls, e-mails, and internet traffic, introducing ID cards represents another milestone on our descent into socialist totalitarianism.

Do you want an ID card? Do you trust the Government to safeguard all your personal information?

ID Cards

Are you going to volunteer for an ID card?

Goodlad

My interest in surveillance has always been large. I suspect because of my long marriage to Howard Marks aka Mr Nice (the infamous charismatic dope dealer).

Before the birth of our children Howard was a fugitive and we lived much of the time with phony passports, driving licenses and bank accounts.

The DEA alleged that Howard at one time had as many as forty-three aliases, eighty-nine phone lines and owned twenty–five companies trading throughout the world.

To find out more buy my book Mr Nice and Mrs Marks: Adventures with Howard

Surveillance today is far more pervasive than in the days of our escapades. The recent House of Lords committee report warns that it “threatens to undermine democracy” and that it “represents one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of the second world war”.

Civil liberties campaigners have warned about the risks of a “surveillance society” in which the state acquires ever-greater powers to track people’s movements and retain personal data.

Many would argue that surveillance and identity cards were needed to stop the likes of Howard and I continuing in a life of crime.

“There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state”

Lord Goodlad, chairman of the House of Lords constitution committee.

Do you agree with Lord Goodlad?

American Civil Liberties Video

The following is an American Civil Liberties Video, made in 2004.

It illustrates how new technology and weak privacy laws can be used to reveal sensitive information about a person involved in even the most mundane of activities.

Although the video is highly amusing it is also exceedingly disturbing.

Do you want to order that takeaway now?

Huge Internet Spy Centre

SPY chiefs are forging ahead with secret plans to monitor all internet use and telephone calls in Britain. This is despite Jacqui Smith's announcement earlier this week that proposals for a central warehouse of communications data had been abolished on privacy grounds.

A mass internet surveillance system known as Mastering the Internet (MTI) will cost hundreds of millions of pounds. It will consist of thousands of deep packet inspection probes inside communications providers' networks.

MTI will grant intelligence staff in Cheltenham GCHQ complete visibility of UK Internet traffic. It will allow them to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain. The agency will also be able to track telephone calls made over the internet, as well as all phone calls to landlines and mobiles.

At the moment the agency is able to use probes to monitor the content of calls and e-mails sent by specific individuals who are the subject of police or security service investigations.

Today these interceptions must be approved by a warrant signed by the home secretary or a minister of equivalent rank.

The new GCHQ internet-monitoring network will shift the focus of the surveillance state away from a few hundred targeted people to everyone in the UK.

Last week, in what seemed to be a concession to privacy campaigners, Smith announced that she was dropping the controversial plans for a single “big brother” database to centrally store all communications data in Britain.

Jacqui Smith said. “The government recognised the privacy implications of the move [and] therefore does not propose to pursue this move.”

Smith announced that up to £2 billion of public money would instead be spent helping private internet and telephone companies to save information for up to 12 months in separate databases.

She neglected to mention that substantial additional sums — amounting to more than £1 billion over three years — had already been allocated to GCHQ for its MTI programme.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said “We opposed the big brother database because it gave the state direct access to everybody’s communications. But this network of black boxes achieves the same thing via the back door.”

Ministers have said they do not intend to snoop on the actual content of e-mails or telephone calls. The monitoring will instead focus on who an individual is communicating with or which websites and chat rooms they are visiting.

Supporters of MTI and IMP say they are essential if intelligence agencies are to preserve their capability to monitor terrorist and other criminal networks. GCHQ does not want to discuss how the data it gathered will be used.

Are they gathering this information to “protect us?” What do you think?

Data lost, stolen, mislaid

Public alarm is growing about the dangers of identity theft. Nearly every week in the press we read reports of data loss.

These losses are not caused by criminals hacking computers (a huge area of concern) but by human error.

Not only is it bad enough that a vast realm of private information is gathered about us. We then have to read about its loss or theft.

And only wonder “Who has it?”

Towards the end of 2007 HM Revenue & Customs lost two CDs containing the banking details of 25 million Britons. Ministers admitted they had vanished.

In December 2007 The News of the World obtained two disks mislaid by the Department for Work and Pensions containing the national insurance numbers of 18,000 claimants.

The Ministry of Defence revealed in October 2008 that a laptop had been stolen.

The laptop contained passport details, National Insurance numbers, family details, medical records, and the bank records of at least 3,500 people who had expressed interest in joining the Armed Forces.

On the 26 April '09 the Serious Organised Crime Agency reported that a Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) officer left her handbag containing a memory stick containing downloaded data on undercover agents and their informants on a bus.

The SOCA officer was on route from Quito, Ecuador to Bogotá, Columbia, to start a new job as a liaison officer working with MI5 and MI6, the British security and intelligence services, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

This significant data breach of 600,000 potential services recruits included passport details and bank account data.

The above are just a few instances of many such cases, not only in the UK but in the US as well.

Do you feel protected?

DNA Data Bank

The UK Forensic Science Service (FSS) established the world’s first DNA database in April 1995.

It is allegedly the largest in the world. It contains samples from more than 7% of the population. The database grows by 30,000 samples each month.

Police forces in the UK (excluding Scotland) can take DNA and fingerprints from anybody arrested on suspicion of a recordable offense and hold the samples indefinitely whether people are charged or not.

The privacy of samples stored in these data banks has become a major legal, political, ethical, and moral issue.

The potential for error and privacy violations become greater each day, and yet, many are quick to assume that the only people who have reason for concern are the guilty.

On 4th December 2008, 17 judges at The European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that keeping DNA samples of innocent people was unlawful. As a consequence, thousands of DNA samples on the UK DNA database may have to be destroyed.

The UK government has responded by saying, “The existing law will remain in place while we carefully consider the judgement."

In early 2007, five employees of Britain's national DNA database agency were arrested on charges of industrial espionage for allegedly stealing DNA information from the database and using it to set up a rival firm.

Civil rights activist Shami Chakrabarti said the alleged theft from the database, which houses DNA samples from nearly 4 million people, was cause for concern.

"This is hugely significant and should make every law-abiding person seriously worried. People are looking after these databases who have less and less of a public-service ethic,"

Civil rights groups have long been critical of the controversial database, arguing there are no real safeguards to prevent misuse.

Are you worried?

Talking CCTV cameras

Talking Cameras? Dogbook? Catbook?

Is the world going barking mad?

Every Step You Take

Surveillance is an 'inescapable' part of life in modern Britain

Today when I visit the UK I see cameras almost everywhere. In restaurants, traffic lights, street corners, offices, hospitals, stations and even in public rest rooms. The government also has satellites orbiting the world capturing, among other things, information about us.

Then there are the commercials on TV, in which they say that no matter where you go the police will find you and give you a ticket for not wearing a seat belt.

Do you feel as if you are watched? Chances are your 100% correct. It is the pretence that you are unobserved that is an act of self-delusion in modern Britain.

In the UK people can expect a camera to record them up to 300 times a day.

UK privacy campaigners claim that Britain has the most cameras per head of any population in the world. In 2004 the European Commission found 40,000 cameras monitored public areas in 500 British towns and cities, compared to fewer than 100 cameras in 15 German cities and no open street CCTV in Denmark.

Click here to check out photos of surveillance cameras in London.

Primary schools are using surveillance cameras to track down and punish children behind childish classroom pranks.

Lynch Hill Primary in Slough, Berkshire disclosed how it used the sophisticated equipment to identify an eight-year-old girl who hid her friend's shoes during a lesson.

The school has cameras in 12 classrooms, three corridors, the school reception area, the music room and the canteen.

As a parent, I fully understand concern over protecting our children from danger. But is this really how we want the cameras used?

What do you think?

Erosion of Privacy

I enjoyed 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley immensely when I was a young teenager. But then of course it was all science fiction. The world these books described would never happen.

How wrong I was.

Today with the way the world is changing, the realities of these two books is becoming closer at an astonishing speed.

In particular the United States and the United Kingdom are the leaders in this encroaching Orwellian nightmare.

"War is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is strength," wrote George Orwell in his book 1984.

In recent years in the name of peace wars have been fought and entire populations controlled all in the name of freedom. While government spin and an acquiescent media help to keep people ignorant of their leader’s real motivations.

Technology today has altered many lives for the better. Several of these advances have made day-to-day life more pleasurable. But at the same time not everyone is aware of the sinister dangers that lie behind many of these technological advances.

Slowly our privacy is eroding without us realizing to what extent. Governments use technology to snoop on us and it is becoming more and more invasive. It distracts us with inaccurate subjects; misrepresents history in order to “protect” us from various multiple threats.

We are being schooled to fear asylum seekers, climate change, deranged terrorists and even one another.

Western governments, I believe, are perfecting the politics of fear because fearful citizens will do their bidding without question and voluntarily subject themselves to control.

And Great Britain has become the expert of this technique in the western world.

The British House of Lords has reported this month (April 2009) that Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency.

What do you think?

Catbook

Then I thought, but surely there's not a Catbook as well. But guess what?

And don't dogs and cats in many countries now need to be microchipped?

Will it be humans next?

Oh dear-is the fear of the surveillance society getting to me?

What are your views?

Dogbook

Purely out of curiousity I wondered if anyone had decided to start a facebook for dogs. So googled dogbook and guess what?

Facebook

Unfortunately, shortly before signing the contract for my book I discovered I had breast cancer.

Having to concentrate on writing focused my mind away from lingering on this fact too closely. And with all the excitement of finally having it published and its promotion I barely had time to think.

However, radiotherapy does leave one exhausted. So when I returned to Mallorca I was ready to hide away and concentrate on rebuilding my strength. There were also rather a few other major personal issues taking place in my life.

It never rains but it pours is a cliché that could well describe my life then. But that is subject material for my next book.

While I was convalescing I received an invitation from a friend to join Facebook. He thought it would be a useful tool to help me publicize my book. I accepted and joined. What I saw appalled me.

Many years ago in the mid 1980’s, a friend of mine and Howard’s, Tom Sunde, who had connections with the CIA turned up on our doorstep. He had with him various documents that he claimed he had procured from the DEA. One of these documents named almost everyone we knew, from the family doctor, various dodgy characters to the children’s baby-sitters. The DEA had obviously painstakingly gathered all this information.

Read my book to find out more

Mr Nice and Mrs Marks: Adventures with Howard

As I looked at Facebook this memory came flooding back. No longer would the DEA, CIA or whatever government agencies have to labour away at proving these connections. People were readily supplying huge amounts of data about themselves.

I wondered if users understood how their information could be used or if they understood the limits of any notion of privacy "controls" online.

Many friends of mine have said they know more about their children from facebook than they do from normal family interaction!!

Facebook currently holds the personal information of about 58 million users. For obvious reasons in this post 9/11 age, social networking sites will remain an attractive source for government surveillance and data-mining.

And supposing you have inadvertently listed a criminal suspect among your 800 "friends", would this enable the government to lawfully search, arrest or even charge you with conspiracy.

To watch more videos about facebook go to Youtube.

What are your views?

Mr Nice & Mrs Marks

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Click on the link below to purchase

Mr Nice and Mrs Marks: Adventures with Howard

Birth of my Book

Three years ago I wrote a book entitled Mr Nice and Mrs Marks.

I had nine months in which to write it which made me think that having a book published is a bit like giving birth. A nerve wreaking and joyful experience combined. And no going back.

Interviews on numerous radio stations throughout the UK followed publication. The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and many other UK newspapers carried feature articles or interviews with me.

Much to my delight I received the following e-mail from my publicist at Ebury Press.

You´ve been selected for Book of the week in the Sunday Express Magazine to run early May

My first publicity schedule is below:

PUBLICITY AND EVENTS SCHEDULE (April-May 06)

MR NICE & MRS MARKS

Tuesday 25th April
TELEGRAPH INTERVIEW – Tom Lennard
GUARDIAN FAMILY – Emma Cook – to run 6th May
Sunday 30th April
11am PHOTOSHOOT for Guardian
Tuesday 2nd May
MAIL ON SUNDAY
Venue: Hotel room
Tues/wed or thurs morning very very latest
Thursday 4th May
2pm THE TIMES T2 LOVE ETC
Interview in Brighton
Saturday 6th May
10.30am LOOSE ENDS BBC RADIO 4 – pre rec
with Ned Sherrin
BBC BUSH HOUSE, Aldwych, London WC2.
Studio: S6 -
Wednesday 10th May
9.30am Good Morning Wales, BBC Radio Wales, Cardiff,
in Brighton
12.30pm Lunch with Ebury
Thursday 11th May
8.25-9am BBC RADIO WALES – LIVE
Confirmed Down the line from Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London WI Studio: 1R
NB: go to reception and they will direct you to the studio.
10-10.30am BBC RADIO LEEDS - live
Confirmed Down the line from Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London
Studio: IR
10.30-11.00amBBC RADIO NORTHAMPTON
confirmed Down the line from BBC
1.30-2pm BBC RADIO BRISTOL - live
Confirmed Down the line from BH
3.15pm BBC RADIO KENT - live
Confirmed
Friday 12th May
11.30 at night BBC RADIO LONDON - live
12-1am 35c Marylebone High Street, London
Confirmed To review the papers with another guest and talk about your book
Tuesday 16th May
11.10am BBC RADIO NOTTINGHAM – live
Confirmed Down the line from Broadcasting House, Portland Place. London WI
7.15- 7.30pm RADIO EUROPE
Phone interview from Brighton
Thursday 18th May
10-11am RTE RADIO DUBLIN – GERRY RYAN SHOW
Confirmed Down the line from Broadcasting House Portland place, London WI
18th June
Train tickets for judy – if late needs a hotel
Kulture shock bookshop – street fair in Norwich
Date to be confirmed
Trip to Ireland
To be confirmed.

This schedule was continually added to. I had magazine interviews with Harpers, Marie Claire and various other women´s magazines. I travelled around the UK doing book signings. The organisers of the Daphne du Maurier Literary Festival in Cornwall invited me to give a talk.

From April to the end of July I lived a hectic schedule and then it fizzled out. My publishers had moved on to promoting their next book.

For me, who is intrinsically shy and had found all the publicity and interviews to be a nerve-racking experience, it was with a degree of relief that I returned to my home on the island of Mallorca.

Once back here all the local magazines, newspapers and local radio stations interviewed me until that too petered out.

Without all the media exposure book sales slowed. During the time of writing the book, its final editing and promotion, Ebury had become to feel like parents. Guiding, directing and advising me.

Back home in Mallorca I felt abandoned. Ebury had new children now.

“You should be promoting your book,” friends would say.

“How?” I would ask.

To which I would receive a bewildered look and no concrete advice.

Do you have any advice?