Westminster snoopers use Centrino to monitor Soho

Soho, based in W1, is perceived by some as a den of iniquity containing a multitude of pubs, clubs, and clip joints, and inhabited by bohemians, media luvvies, hacks, whores and even ordinary people.

But Westminster Council is proclaiming a plan today to "wire" the whole of Soho and monitor its lurid back alleyways, opium dens and dens of vice using the awesome power of Intel Centrino technology.

According to the council, it will use Centrino notebooks to monitor noise disturbances and also access views of the vice using a network of closed circuit TV cameras.

The pilot will be completed this May, and Westminster said it will work with Intel in "an advisory capacity to define, develop and roll-out the technology across London".

In Orwellian terms, Westminster proclaims this scheme as the "Wireless City", but plebs, whores and hacks won't be able to log in to the civic scheme.

The Council said that the system is flexible enough to respond to new outbreaks of criminal activity, and will let it install even more CCTVs to monitor that chance encounter tourists may experience in a back alley.

An Intel representative described the snooping initiative as "a vision of e-government at its best". µ

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