[big brother] of espionage and road pricing

Toll station requiring e-cards which they euphemistically label "e-z cards"

Gavin Ayling writes of Road Spying and clearly the issue hasn’t reached some people’s consciousness yet. Gavin writes: If you:

• care about civil liberties
• drive a car/motorcycle/van
• rely, ever, on anyone who does (plumber, carpenter, gardener, Royal Mail)
• ever break the speed limit

... which most people will do all of, then sign the Road Pricing Petition!

A commenter, Benvolio Foster, queries: How is this an issue of Civil Liberty?

Your current poster responds: Because, Benvolio, it's the coupling of road pricing PLUS tracking. It's the tracking they've slipped in there virtually unnoticed and that is a major issue of civil liberty. They could easily have a drop bin at turnpikes or a man on a window and true, he could note vehicle reg they're looking for but the plastic card e-system stinks. It is police state tactics.

The rule of thumb with absolutely anything the outgoing New Labour is doing is to look at the fine print and see which civil issue is coupled or tacked on at the end. Fortunately, there are a few eagle-eyed bloggers about who see these things and THAT is one of the prime reasons for blogging and blogsurfing.