Snooping on the hedge trimmers.

So what does the council use its Ripa powers for, to catch dangerous fraudsters, criminals, fly by night con artists who steal the money from old age pensioners?

No Big Brother Watch has this story of some state employed sad fuck, the sort of lonely bloke who sits alone downloading kiddie porn(probably) and believes his job is to demonstrate to the world what an utter cunt he his on a daily basis.

Over at This is Croydon Today, a story that should be unbelievable but actually shows something so increasingly common that it is likely to produce shrugs instead.  The Council has used Ripa covert surveillance powers to monitor... a bloke trimming a hedge.

Anyone who dreams that councils use Ripa powers responsibly should listen to this example.  It is a disgrace that unelected officials are snooping on us like this – and it happens all the time.

These powers are meant for terrorism and serious crimes – but they are abused every single day.

All Croydonians will be naturally be wondering who else has been spied on like this.  And so should you.

This sort of absurd excess shows why no Ripa reform short of banning councils from using these powers at all will ever be enough.

By Alex Deane

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