Getting inside the mind of a nosy parker

ONE THIRD of British people would be happy for their conversations to be recorded by the next generation of super-snoop CCTV cameras.

But who are these neo-Blakeys? Are they all traffic wardens by profession? Were they all prefects at school?

The findings were touted by the Office of the Information Commissioner yesterday as proof that we shouldn't allow listening CCTV cameras onto the streets of Britain. 72 per cent of Scots, the ICO said, "would not support the use of closed circuit television cameras that record your conversations".

Similar views were found in other British regions, which looked at askance show that one third of people <em>would support<em> the use of listening CCTV.

A disproportionate number of younger people - about 40 per cent those between 18 and 34 years old - supported the idea of petty bureaucrats at the council listening to their drunken conversations in the street.

Support dropped off for each age bracket higher than young, with about 30 per cent of later thirty somethings, 25 per cent of the middle-aged and just 21 per cent of those above retirement age wanting their conversations recorded.

Might it be that the oldies didn't like the idea because they moan about everything anyway? Perhaps not. Another view of the data reveals a difference of opinion according to wage packet.

The upper and middle classes were more likely to support the idea (33 per cent of those classified as AB social class) than the working class and unemployed (25 per cent of DEs).

This, combined with other findings, helps paint a stereotypical picture of a British middle class disfigured by the twin epidemics of nimbyism and sanctimony.

A study of CCTV attitudes in Germany, published by Dr. Nils Zurawski at the University of Hamburg in 2006, found that people in posh suburbs wanted to see CCTV put in poor suburbs to control the oiks. But the people in the poor sub urbs didn't want to be watched by CCTV at all, let alone scrutinised more closely with dystopian sci-fi add-ons like microphones.

Interestingly, lower middle class junior office workers and such like - perhaps the strata most likely to have their every toilet visit watched by itchy call-centre managers - showed a slightly smaller than average preference for listening CCTV, at 28 per cent.

While C2 people - the skilled working class, foremen, plumbers and so on - showed the highest preference of all, at 34 per cent. Could it be that middle class attitudes to Britain's apparent social decline have permeated the C2's because so many computer programmers have retrained as plumbers?

Or is this evidence of a stereotypically snide attitude among the those in the serving classes that have made it as far as the first rung of the ladder? The renaissance of Blakey, in other words.

We shouldn't promote wanton social bigotry, so it should be noted that ICM's sample sizes were small and the scope of the survey was limited.

Unfortunately, the ICO is under-funded, which might explain why it only paid ICM to ask two questions. We can gain but a grain of understanding from the data gathered.

The greatest of the unanswered questions is why do these people think listening CCTV is such a good idea? There was a mere one point difference in opinion based on gender, so can it really be that it makes people feel safer? That it reduces the 'fear of crime', as proponents of the technology say in the absence of evidence that it reduces actual crime? µ