SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY SHOULD FOCUS ON CATCHING CROOKS

ONE of my fellow MEPs was travelling on Greater Anglia between London and Ipswich when his suitcase was stolen.

You’d think that in this day and age, when it is all but impossible to go outside your own front door without being caught on CCTV, the miscreant could have been identified either on board the train or at whichever station he or she alighted. Nope. For all the profusion of cameras, my colleague has encountered nothing but shrugs.

You would imagine cameras pointed at luggage racks, along platforms and at the exits certainly to catch any altercation between a passenger and ticket inspector. Nope again.

Our surveillance society can monitor whole journeys of innocent citizens but it cannot catch crooks. ■

ARRON Banks, the Brexit businessman, has been cleared by both the Metropolitan Police and the National Crime Agency of electoral malfeasance during the referendum. Not much noise has been made about it.

Of course, had it gone the other way, the Remain establishment would have ensured headlines big enough for the Second Coming.