Madam Miaow says ...: War On Tourism: police destroy holiday snaps of London buses.

Friday, 17 April 2009

War On Tourism: police destroy holiday snaps of London buses.

Paranoid poster at my local bus stop

Did you know it was illegal to photograph British transport? When did that happen?

Two tourists were caught out by the police’s new Fantasy Laws, under which bored Plods can compel you to wipe your camera should you take pictures of London’s iconic landmarks, such as our famous red buses (bring back the Routemaster!), the Tube, and those friendly bobbies on the beat we know and love from Dixon of Dock Green.

Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris were lucky they weren’t given a full-cavity search, as happened to Julian Cope at Liverpool Street where he was meeting friends for the G20 protests.

Unsurprisingly, they say it’ll be a cold day in hell before they come back.

Well done, New Labour. Not only do our Amurkin friends laugh at us for having more CCTVs than any other country, our security laws are among the most draconian in the world with one in four government databases being illegal and the European Commission launching an investigation into Britain's surveillance society. And now we declare War on Tourism. Smart.

9 comments:

Mrs. M. said...: this is illegal yet the paps can stick their cameras up jessica simpson's dress while she's walking and sell the crotch shots for thousands??? (Seriously, those assholes did that). In other words, a form of rape=A Ok, but taking a picure of a landmark=of the devil. twisted.; 17 April 2009 21:00
Renegade Eye said...: That is scary.

Photographing public transport is actually common on a London vacation.

You should warn the postcard vendors.; 18 April 2009 07:49
claude said...: Littlejohn should pen one of his frothing "You couldn't make it up" rants on this.

Seriously though. Wait until some knobend a-la Letter From A Tory writes that the two Austrians were waving their camera suspiciously at the rozzers and that, above all, they were from Austria.; 19 April 2009 12:28
Madam Miaow said...: And pissed, Claude. Don't forget pissed.

Apart from the Janet Street Porter piece on Tomlinson which you found, there's also been a concerted effort on the BBC's PM programme to demonise "alcoholics".

Funny how, only days after Tomlinson's killing, the government, including our old friend that scourge of the poor and weak, Purnell, has been calling for a crackdown. But note, not in Fleet Street and the House of Lords, notorious pissheads en masse, but among the masses, the "feckless poor".; 19 April 2009 12:56
splinteredsunrise said...: According to Lauren Booth, NuLabour have created 3,609 new offences since they came to power in 1997 - that must be getting on for one a day. And the most CCTV cameras in the world, and are we any safer? No, we're not.

If this was happening in Zimbabwe, we'd never hear the end of it.; 19 April 2009 13:49
Madam Miaow said...: It's as if they've all done too much Bolivian marching powder and are loopy with it.

Welcome to Airstrip One, Renegade and Mrs M.( Love your new avatar pic, Mrs M).; 19 April 2009 15:58
harpymarx said...: Ah, Julian Cope... sorry digressing...

Yeah, I read about those two tourists and was appalled. But this has happened to photographers (before that draconian section of the Counter-Terrorism Act about photographing cops)being stopped by the cops for taking photos of.......buildings! Do they think they are carrying out some bombing mission and having a quick reccie?

Instead of asking the cops threaten with arrest.

We live in a risk obsessed surveillance society. Yet, ironically, does it make us safer...?

Oh, and even the cops are getting wrong when one was asked during a lull of the violence on the 1st April whether it was an offence to take a pic of a cop. He said it is only an offence if done 'covertly'..which is rubbish.

But this is from a riot cop who proclaimed to a line of protesters he was against violence....!!!!!

Yep...wonderful April Fool's Joke!; 19 April 2009 20:03
Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...: Have you seen the anti-terror hotline posters yet?

I've blogged on that at mine.; 24 April 2009 09:25
DAVE BONES said...: Bloody tourists! That'll learn em.; 4 May 2009 02:26