the register has been listening to ken livingstone on the day of the introduction of congestion charging in central london.



it would appear that "the ken formerly known as red" has developed a degree of old labour stalinism and says that the security cameras which back up the number-plate recognition system will stay, whether congestion charging succeeds or not, to provide a security infrastructure wherein "if a terrorist group is trying to drive in we can identify the car, it can be flagged up instantly and we can even possibly be in a position where we can recognise the driver. so there's now an added benefit that we didn't anticipate when we thought about this but since sept 11th central london will be dramatically safer, not impossible for anybody to get in, but a lot more difficult for a villain to get in and do their damage".



so, since sept 11th london's become dramatically safer, these cameras are good enough to recognise vehicle drivers and villains will have a hard time getting in and out of the city?



give me a break ken, you cunt.



how the fuck would you know that a particular vehicle was being used by terrorists until after they'd done something evil?



these cameras are not good enough to be used for facial recognition. even if they were, facial recognition systems are far too primitive to be of any use.



london's not a safer place now than it was before sept 11th. the number of people and vehicles moving around in there makes it an inherently insecure place. no number of cameras will change that: when david copeland planted three bombs in london, he killed. the security cameras were of some use in identifying him afterwards, but they didn't stop the murderous little bastard planting his bombs, killing people and getting away.



but ken will persist with his snooping cameras and retain the number-plate records he needs to run his congestion charging system in order to keep tabs on people's movements. he'll encourage the use of transponders in vehicles so that he can snoop on people.



the ken formerly known as red has become a tool of the anti-freedom, pro-militarism, jackboot-in -the-face establishment he's always said he abhors.