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Monday 30th November 2009
BBC London 94.9FM - Dylan Sharpe by Big George on the Late Show
LBC 97.3FM - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Petrie Hoskin
Evening Standard - Government plan to pay £500 to snoop on your neighbour
But critics warn that the scheme could be divisive and said the payments were a further "dangerous" example of ministers encouraging residents to engage in unwarranted snooping on their neighbours.
Dylan Sharpe of the campaign group Big Brother Watch claimed the move showed the Government was creating "an army of citizen snoopers".
BBC 3 Counties Radio - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Roberto Perrone
BBC Radio 5Live - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Anita Anand on Drivetime
Daily Telegraph - Critics attack new 'big brother' quiz aimed at identifying young criminals
Dylan Sharpe, of the Big Brother Watch pressure group, said: “This is incredibly intrusive and asks questions which, quite frankly, Lincolnshire Community Health Services do not need to know and have no right knowing.
“I would advise any parent receiving this to stick it straight in the bin.”
Daily Mail - £500 to spy on your neighbour: State 'bribe' to tip off council if house is being illegally sub-let
Ministers believe their campaign against illegal letting will also help clamp down on other social problems - such as prostitution, cannabis factories, fraud and illegal immigration.
Dylan Sharpe, from the organisation Big Brother Watch, said: 'This shows the Government is creating an army of citizen snoopers.'
Daily Express - ID cards rolled out in Manchester - but they're not even compulsory
Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “The people who have signed up for these cards in Manchester will probably not appreciate that, under Part 9, Schedule 1 of the ID Cards Act 2006, every time they use the card, the details of use - who they are, where they were, what they did with it, who they did it with - will be recorded indefinitely by the Government on this database.
“They will not know because they have not been warned about it - and that is disgraceful.”
Daily Telegraph - £500 rewards for people who 'shop neighbours' over illegal sub-letting
But the initiative has been attacked by civil liberty campaigners.
Dylan Sharpe, from the organisation Big Brother Watch, said : "This shows the Government is creating an army of citizen snoopers."
Friday 27th November 2009
Alex Deane spoke about "an agenda for civil liberties under a potential Conservative Government" at the Annual Conference of the Conservative Political Officers Network, held in Windsor.
Dylan Sharpe spoke about "National Community Safety Policy and Civil Liberties" at the Loughborough Community Safety Workshop organised by Nicky Morgan.
Thursday 26th November 2009
Daily Mail - Anti-terror tsar Lord West falls victim to own stop and search powers
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'The reality is that the number of successful prosecutions for terrorism offences resulting from these draconian stop and search powers was none when they were being used weekly, and none now they’re barely used at all.
'What these new figures can’t undo is the embarrassment and anguish felt by the many people abused for no good reason under this now all-but abandoned power.'
Information World Review - Of mashers and snoopers
So it’s probably not surprising that a new survey commissioned from PoliticsHome found 62% of people strongly disagreeing with the proposition that the government can be trusted to keep our personal information secure.
In truth, though, neither of these results is necessarily quite what it seems. The PoliticsHome survey was commissioned by Big Brother Watch, an arm of the spending cuts-oriented TaxPayers’ Alliance.
Active Home - Of mashers and snoopers
Personal Computer World - Of mashers and snoopers
V3.co.uk - Of mashers and snoopers
Web Active Magazine - Of mashers and snoopers
Tuesday 24th November 2009
TalkSport - Alex Deane interviewed by Ian Collins on the Late Show
Sunday 22nd November 2009
Corus radio network, Canada - Alex Deane interviewed by Roy Green
Friday 20th November 2009
Daily Telegraph - Chief prosecutor backs state snooping plans
Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, said: “It is not the government’s job to monitor our private communications. If the authorities suspect there is something going on they can do as they have always done and apply for a warrant from the courts.
“We hear of too many cases of private and personal data being lost, sold or misused by the state to trust that our phone calls and emails won’t end up in the hands of the wrong people.
“The DPP should also watch he doesn’t become a cheerleader for a government policy that the British people feel deeply uncomfortable about.”
Thursday 19th November 2009
BBC Radio 5Live - Alex Deane interviewed by Richard Bacon
City Talk 103.5FM - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Peter McDowall
Daily Express - CCTV in homes to spy on neighbours
But Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “People accept these cameras into their homes because they are afraid.
The council might be installing them with the best intentions, but the end result is a culture of fear and mistrust driven by a failure by the borough and the police to have proper law enforcement in this area.
Metro - CCTV cameras placed inside homes
But Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, warned the cameras would create a "culture of fear and mistrust. People accept these cameras into their homes because they are afraid.
"The council might be installing them with the best intentions, but the end result is a culture of fear and mistrust driven by a failure on the part of the borough and the police to have proper law enforcement in this area.
Wednesday 18th November 2009
talkSPORT - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Ian Collins on the late show
BBC Look North - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Harry Gration
LBC 97.3FM - Alex Deane interviewed by James Whale on Drivetime
BBC News London - 'Hidden CCTV' installed in homes
Anti-CCTV group Big Brother Watch said the cameras would create a "culture of fear and mistrust" in the area.
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "People accept these cameras into their homes because they are afraid.
Politics.co.uk - CCTV placed inside private homes
But critics opposed to a 'Big Brother' state said the extra surveillance was only needed because police had failed to confront the problem.
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, a campaign by the Taxpayers' Alliance, cautioned the CCTV cameras would create "a culture of fear and mistrust".
102.2 Smooth Radio - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Nick Hatfield
BBC Radio Lincolnshire - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by William Wright
Daily Mail - Secret CCTV cameras fitted INSIDE people's homes to spy on neighbours outside
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'People accept these cameras into their homes because they are afraid.
'The council might be installing them with the best intentions, but the end result is a culture of fear and mistrust driven by a failure on the part of the borough and the police to have proper law enforcement in this area.
24dash.com - Council installs CCTV cameras inside homes to tackle street yobs
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, warned the cameras would create a "culture of fear and mistrust".
"Better to have real action from the failing authorities than to extend once more our surveillance society."
Heart 102.7FM Peterborough - Dylan Sharpe interviewed on Lunchtime News
Daily Mail - Big Brother quiz for new school parents: Officials launch 83-point probe into families' lives
Dylan Sharpe of the Big Brother Watch pressure group said: 'This is incredibly intrusive and asks questions which, quite frankly, Lincolnshire Community Health Services do not need to know and have no right knowing.
'Even worse, the NHS Trust has failed to make it clear that this is a voluntary questionnaire. I would advise any parent receiving this to stick it straight in the bin.'
Monday 16th November 2009
City Talk 103.5FM - Alex Deane interviewed on Drivetime
Westside Radio - Alex Deane Discusses the Media Controversy over Harrow Neighbourhood Champions Scheme
Wolverhampton Express and Star - Mother wins support in duck fine battle
Campaign group Big Brother Watch, part of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, has also pledged its support to Miss Kelly’s appeal.
Campaign director Alex Deane, a barrister and formerly Tory leader David Cameron’s chief of staff, said: “I am proud to be helping Miss Kelly in her fight against this ludicrous fine.”
Sunday 15th November 2009
Daily Telegraph - Health and Safety inspectors ‘sent in to family homes’
Alex Deane, director of “Big Brother Watch”, a campaign group set up by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said that the plans risked endangering trust between medical staff and patients.
“This crosses the important line between individuals asking the state for help and the state forcing ‘help’ on us,” he said.
“Every time there is an intrusion into our privacy, there is always an ostensible good intention and normally it is to do with the protection of children.
The Sunday Sun - Stockton Council under fire over drug test plans
Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, said: “What you do in your private time is between you and the law and not between an employee and a business or council.
“They have the right to govern how you work during nine to five but they do not have the right to police your leisure time. Let’s hope this council comes to its senses and doesn’t follow through these silly proposals.”
Saturday 14th November 2009
Hawkinge Gazette - Big Brother steps in to to fight duck feeding fine
The Big Brother Watch organisation has stepped in to help Vanessa Kelly in her fight against Sandwell Council over her £75 fine for feeding ducks at a local park.
Magna Carta Plus - Big Brother Watch
Big Brother Watch is a new campaign, launched by the founders of the Taxpayer’s Alliance. Their mission is to document and fight the erosion of civil liberties in Britain.
Friday 13th November 2009
Daily Telegraph - Vanessa Kelly's fine for feeding the ducks is latest creeping incursion into our liberties
Our society is becoming so illiberal that it’s almost as if normal life is becoming unlawful, argues Alexander Deane.
My dream, my highest hope for my organisation, is to reverse that fear; to turn that chilling effect around. In a few years' time, when about to wake the grandfather from his bed and take him to the police station for supposedly swearing, or on the verge of filling out that illiberal Fixed Penalty Notice, I want the jobsworths to feel the chilling effect themselves - what if Big Brother Watch is watching?
Mirror - Mum is fined £75 for feeding ducks
...Vanessa, of Oldbury, West Mids, has sent a complaint to her town hall. She is backed by Big Brother Watch, which battles intrusive officialdom.
Its chief Alex Deane called the penalty "ludicrous" and said: "Can there be a more absurd example of the Big Brother state? She won't pay, nor should she." But Sandwell council insisted she was rightly fined for not being in a "designated feeding area" at the park in Smethwick, West Mids...
Wednesday 11th November 2009
Metro - DNA of innocents to be held for six years
...The measures outraged civil liberties groups, including Big Brother Watch. 'Despite Alan Johnson's recent promise to remove the DNA of innocent people, despite being unanimously defeated in the European Court, this government is still wrongly retaining samples,' said its director, Alex Deane...
Daily Telegraph - DNA of innocent still to be retained for six years
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, added: “If the government thinks that because they are targeting teenagers they can get away with this sort of intrusion, they are wrong."
Tuesday 10th November 2009
Sky News - Alex Deane interviewed by Martin Stanford
Sun Talk - Alex Deane interviewed by John Gaunt, columnist at The Sun
Daily Mail - Labour U-turn on Big Brother state: Plan to log all texts and internet searches on hold
Alex Deane, director of anti-snooping campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: 'The Intercept Modernisation Programme is an enormous and unwarranted intrusion into every aspect of our private lives.
'This delay offers the perfect opportunity to the Conservative Party - to firmly pledge never to introduce any aspect of this illiberal snoopers' charter.'
Daily Express - Army of snoops recruited to spy on neighbours
Alex Deane, director of pressure group Big Brother Watch, warned: “An Orwellian big-brother culture depends on everyone spying on everyone else – just as Harrow has planned.”
Daily Telegraph - Every phone call, email and internet click stored by 'state spying' databases
Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, said it was an "enormous and unwarranted intrusion into every aspect of our private lives" and said that the laws are in effect an "illiberal snoopers' charter."
The Herald - Council's plan for 'snooper' squad
Wigan Observer - 'Neighbourhood Champion' scheme comes under fire
Darlington and Stockton Times - Council’s plan for 'snooper' squad
Virgin Media - Council's plan for 'snooper' squad
Hayling Islander - 'Neighbourhood Champion' scheme comes under fire
Monday 9th November 2009
Daily Telegraph - Council accused of recruiting army of 2,000 'snoopers'
But Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the ''Orwellian'' scheme would create an ''army of council snoopers''.
He said: ''So now councils are trying to get us to spy on one another. If they're successful it will lead to even less trust and ever more surveillance."
Local Government Chronicle - Council under fire over 'army of snoopers'
The “Orwellian” scheme has been condemned by Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch as a bid to get “everyone spying on everyone else. If they’re successful it will lead to even less trust and ever more surveillance”.
Glasgow Evening Times - Council's plan for 'snooper' squad
Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the "Orwellian" scheme would create an "army of council snoopers".
Press Association - 'Neighbourhood Champion' scheme comes under fire
Four fifths of residents questioned in a survey backed the idea of "street champions" for every neighbourhood. But Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the "Orwellian" scheme would create an "army of council snoopers".
24dash.com - Council recruiting 'army of snoopers' for Neighbourhood Champion scheme
But Alex Deane said: "So now councils are trying to get us to spy on one another. If they're successful it will lead to even less trust and ever more surveillance.
"An Orwellian big brother culture depends on everyone spying on everyone else - just as Harrow has planned."
Conservative Home - The Government's schizophrenic approach to council powers
...As Big Brother Watch noted some time ago, this remarkable extension of the Proceeds of Crime Act is even more troubling by dint of the fact that Parliament didn't vote on it - it was introduced by Statutory Instrument...
Sunday 8th November 2009
LBC 97.3 - Alex Deane interviewed by Andrew Pierce on the Sunday Show
Friday 6th November 2009
Independent - Alex Deane: Why RIPA is ripe for reining in
...It is a disgrace that unelected officials are snooping on us like this – and it happens all the time (as noted as far afield as in The New York Times). The powers are meant solely for terrorism and serious crimes – but as we have noted at Big Brother Watch , they are abused every single day...
Thursday 5th November 2009
Daily Express - Curb on Big Brother 'doesn't go far enough'
...But local officials used them at massive cost for dog fouling, checking staff who claim to be sick, and even monitoring the use of disabled parking badges.
Alex Deane, of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: “Unaccountable council officials shouldn’t be able to intrude into our lives as they currently do. Abuse is rampant.”
Daily Telegraph - Child support investigators get new spying powers
...Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Saying that these new extensions to RIPA will only target benefits cheats and parents that fail to pay child support is all well and good; but given recent experience most people will be waiting for cases that show the powers are being used for other, more nefarious reasons.”
Info4Security - Police get technology makeover with body-worn video and evidence management to fight crime
Another poll out at the end of October 2009 – this time from the ‘Big Brother Watch,’ (a campaign from the founders of the TaxPayer's Alliance) – highlighted concerns about surveillance.
Out of 1,353 adults, 45 per cent of respondents 'strongly agreed' with the statement "that our freedoms are being eroded by a Big Brother state”.
Wednesday 4th November 2009
Independent - Town halls set to lose surveillance powers
...Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Ripa abuse is rampant - from spying on dog walkers to people's dustbins, to parents wanting their children to go to schools in a particular catchment area.
"The bottom line is that Ripa needs massive reform. Unelected and unaccountable council officials shouldn't be able to intrude into our lives as they currently do.."
Leith FM - Alex Deane interviewed on Logan’s Brunch show
Tuesday 3rd November 2009
City Talk 103.5FM - Alex Deane interviewed on the Legal Surgery show
Conservative Home - Big Brother is now watching...sheep
...At Big Brother Watch we're used to monitoring Government intrusion into the lives of people. But try this for size...Britain's farmers are going to be forced to tag individual sheep by means of electronic implant - a very expensive procedure compulsorily pushed on an industry that is already on its knees...
Monday 2nd November 2009
Daily Telegraph - EU proposes black boxes for cars
Dylan Sharpe, campaign director for Big Brother Watch, said: “These boxes are yet another means of surveillance that will give anyone with the means to decode them the ability to find out exactly where you have been.
“It starts with the police and insurance companies and ends with vicious employers and jealous partners watching your journeys.”
Black Mental Health UK - Leaked e-mails reveal controversial Home Office plans to hold onto innocent DNA for up to six years
With mistrust in the Government's ability to safeguard personal data at an all time high. Findings from research by the campaigns group Big Brother Watch, show that 86% of those polled fear for the safety of private data in Government hands is a view which resonates with many innocents on the datase.
