Dear LPG,  

I wonder how many readers saw the recent news report where a couple were pictured having a bit of a cuddle at a music concert.  Even if you did not, in this day and age, most readers would not be that alarmed about that, but these two people were high-profile work colleagues who were each married to other people.  I remember that one of the two resigned from his job as a result.   

They were at a concert that was always going to be televised but it got me thinking about how life, once you leave the privacy of your home in the UK, has changed in general.   

Statistics have always interested me and that news story got me doing a bit of a Google investigation.  Did you know that, when it comes down to being rigged with security and other cameras, we in the UK, live in the third most electronically watched country in the world with only Japan and the USA have more CCTV cameras lurking around? 

I also read that the average person in the UK is likely to be caught on camera about 70 times a day.  They are all over the place and most of us are used to them by now.  The average shopper has their eyes focussed on the shelves of items for sale but you only have to look up at the ceiling of the shop to see them.  Busses and trains have them all over the place and any driver will be used to seeing the ones that check how fast they are travelling or if you go through a red traffic light.       

So far I have mentioned all the official ones that are hovering over us, but another set of statistics tell that 94% of British people over the age of 16 own a mobile phone with nearly half of our nine-year-olds being in possession of one.  According to those statistics, oldies are also catching up.  The statistic also shows that well over 50% of people over 60 have one too.   I mention this because, while we older people might be less likely to use ours, every smart phone has a camera on it. 


One in five homes now have a security camera attached to their door bell including me and I remember reading a story on your pages  where the police rang someone’s bell and asked if they could check their bell camera footage to see if a suspect had been pictured walking by.  It is also to be remembered that body cams are gradually becoming accepted when worn by our police, security personnel, and even sports referees.  

I think that those celebrities who go into the jungle and do other reality programmes where   there every move is being recorded for days at a time are a lot braver than me because, forgetting all the horrid things they are made to do and eat, the thought of being watched day and night would put a lot of people off including me.   But in reality, once anybody leaves their front door these days they are being observed.   

Some feel it is an invasion of our privacy but the internet tells that the majority of us can see the upside of having them around.   Being able to take a second look at some of the things that happen allows us to be more sure of the details.  Football, cricket, tennis, rugby and other sports are slowly becoming judged by both human and photographic referees.   

Most readers don’t give them a second thought most of the time and I think that, as long as we are behaving properly when we are out we should not be worried about them.   

Knowing that they are there should dissuade shoplifters and mobile phone thieves from doing so but the news does not reflect that the figures are any better.  Although, it is comforting to know that if you are attacked or abused while in public there is more chance that at least one camera will see it happen. I suppose that they are the people who most disapprove although a hoody or face mask can make all that video footage worthless I suspect.   

Interestingly, the report I read also tells that people are happier being seen on camera than recorded on tape.  The cameras are watching us from above nearly everywhere we go and as long as we are behaving honourably, this is a fact that we all know but we rarely look up high enough to realise.  

Perhaps we need to update an old saying because while today’s children will almost certainly never have heard this saying.  Those surveillance cameras are following the rule that many of us oldies were taught when we were children.  Electronic surveillance cameras are now much better than children, or anyone else, at being seen and not heard! ’  

HH. New Cross. 

 

 

HH shares what the internet says…

 

(►►►)   (►►►)     (►►►)    (►►►)