The practise of monitoring and storing details of political activists is not a new one in this country. It was certainly happening when I attended anti-apartheid demonstrations in the 1980s and I am sure it was going on both before and after that point. Most activists assume that their details are held on some large government database somewhere and so would express no surprise at the revelations on the front page of today's Guardian.
The differences I suppose are firstly that disclosures through the Freedom of Information Act, court testimony, an interview with a senior Met officer and police surveillance footage obtained by the paper now make the existence of such a database undeniable and that secondly, the Police appear to have targeted journalists:
The Guardian has found:
•Activists "seen on a regular basis" as well as those deemed on the "periphery" of demonstrations are included on the police databases, regardless of whether they have been convicted or arrested.
•Names, political associations and photographs of protesters from across the political spectrum – from campaigners against the third runway at Heathrow to anti-war activists – are catalogued.
•Police forces are exchanging information about pro�testers stored on their intelligence systems, enabling officers from different forces to search which political events an individual has attended.
Lawyers said tonight they expect the Guardian's investigation to form the basis of a legal challenge against the use of police surveillance tactics.
How long now before this database is found on an unencrypted memory stick on a commuter train into London?
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