Big Brother Watch

I’ve just been contacted by a UK organisation calling itself ‘Big Brother Watch’, which claims to be a ‘think-tank’ asking for my help and support. Now the UK already has Liberty, Privacy International, No2ID, No-CCTV, not to mentioned the Surveillance Studies Network, and various other campaigns and organisations, so why this new one? Of course anyone and their dog can call themselves a ‘think-tank’ but Big Brother Watch is being more than a little disingenuous. It is basically a creation of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which in turn is a fake ‘popular’ pressure group, and a front for neoliberal economic think-tanks like the Adam Smith Institute, various large industrial interests and the most free-market wing of the Conservative Party – you can find out more about what they are really about here. Now, if those are your politics, and you are happy with who backs them, then you are most welcome to support this new creation, but they aren’t my politics and I won’t be offering any support for such front organisations.