Part and parcel of the ideological offensive accompanying the restoration of capitalism in eastern europe from 1989 onwards was the incessant stories of a surveillance society. Films such as ‘the lives of others’ by West German aristocrat Henckel von Donnersmarck were heavily promoted to discredit the positive reality of life for working people in countries such as the German Democratic Republic
http://neilclark66.blogspot.com/2009/11/eastern-takeover.html
For those of us aware of the blanket surveillance by the security services in Britain of the left, peace activists and trade unionists this always smacked of hypocrisy http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/05/politicians-soviet-agents-mi5-book
Not to mention the constant state sponsored refrains for people to report to Government agencies colleagues, neighbours and even family members who may be suspected of ‘benefit fraud’ http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/BenefitFraud/DG_10014876
The BBC has been reporting for some time that Britain literally is a ‘surveillance society’ as far back as 2006 there were ‘up to 4.2m CCTV cameras in Britain - about one for every 14 people’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6108496.stm
So the report yesterday in Scottish newspaper The Sunday Herald that: ‘thousands of staff at UK nuclear power stations have been told to spy on the private lives of workmates and inform on colleagues who might be “vulnerable” to blackmail or bribery by terrorists intent on getting access to Britain’s nuclear secrets and stocks of weapon-grade plutonium’, is further confirmation of the true nature of the ‘freedom’ workers enjoy in Britain.
Credit to UNISON Scotland regional manager Dave Watson for condemning this practice “Workers take their privacy very seriously. Any suggestions that co-workers should become agents of surveillance are likely to be resisted strongly.”
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/nuclear-workers-asked-to-spy-on-colleagues-lives-1.931040