Life of Gordon Browns Soviet Britain: Councils snoop through rubbish.

Yet more Soviet style spying on citizens in Gordon Brown's "Cool Britannia"

Nearly 100 town halls ordered secret searches of their residents' rubbish bins last year.
The official aim was to find out who was throwing out what to help councils encourage recycling.
But some staff examining the contents of bins also classified residents as well-off or poor.

In one area householders were divided into categories on the basis of their rubbish, ranging from Level One Wealthy Achiever to Level Five Hard Pressed.

The bin trawls, uncovered through Freedom of Information requests, have been criticised as an invasion of privacy and a waste of effort.

One council chief said he strongly objected to the examination of waste unless specific permission is obtained from the householder.

The officially-endorsed searches of residents' rubbish follow many previous rows over council waste collections.

The replacement of weekly bin rounds with fortnightly collections led to a backlash from voters in local elections.

There is also deep unhappiness about the introduction of 'bin police' empowered to hand out fines to those who fail to close wheelie bin lids or put out waste at the wrong time.

New Labour helping to create the new East Germany, right here in the UK. Your tax money hard at work, helping the snooper state spy on you.

.