Monday, March 26, 2007

The Big Brother DVLA adverts

We have nothing to fear from a potential Big Brother state. Increased surveillance is nothing to worry about because the Government would never use it for bad. That is the line that we are so often parroted by the Government about any means of surveillance, or any concerns raised about the increasing pervasive intrusion into our lives.

And yet, whilst the Government maintains this line they simultaneously commission television adverts which have a dark and invasive backing tracking, in conjunction with a large server on a road bridge. As a car drives underneath the viewer is told that they must pay their road tax because "you can't escape the computer".

Now, whilst that particularly line is not actually true (there are hundreds of people escaping the computer), why the need for an advert carrying dark and oppressive undertones of the all=seeing state computer when we also get told that any fears about a dark and oppressive all-seeing state are simply paranoid delusions?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a funny side to it all, though. Have you noticed the slowly pulsing while light on their server unit?

Hallmark of an Apple, that is. Who would have thought our marvelous government would break with the Beast of Redmond and start using something half-decent for a server?

Anonymous said...

Too true. I completely forgot to pay my car tax for over six weeks until the renewal form surfaced to the top of my desk. Rather bashfully, I took my documents to the Post Office and admitted to being late, only to be told that the disc had to run from the start of this month, rather than last, so I ended up being given a free month's tax, which at £190 a year, is actually worth something. The only problem is that the same people are designing "systems" to protect our borders, fight crime, run the NHS...