Ministry for Social Intrusion
Government asks supermarkets to spy on migrants..
In a move that sounds like the plot of a bad movie, The Telegraph has reported that the government wants councils to start spying on migrants in supermarkets. It all seems like some lo-fi Orwellian nightmare but is ostensibly based in fact.
It all revolves around supermarkets such as Tesco, which have incredibly accurate information about "the people that are shopping, or being shopped for in their stores." And, as if that isn't disturbing enough, the government wants to use these statistics to find out where migrants tend to settle once they have reached the UK.
But, hang on, shouldn't the government know more about social demographics than a supermarket??!?? It seems a little creepy to us...
The move was instigated after the government realised that it needed to find out where Eastern European migrants are settling in order to deal with the added pressure that more people place on the local public services such as health care. And that's all fine and dandy.
The only concern that we really have is the thought of supermarket security guards getting on a power trip when they realise that they're allowed to spy on people. Those little nebbish runts with their walkie-talkies already seem to think that they own the place. It'll be unbearable if they realise that they actually do....
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1 Comments
"But, hang on, shouldn't the government know more about social demographics than a supermarket??!?? It seems a little creepy to us..."
Why should it? Supermarkets have an interest in getting accurate information of demographics so that they can get more goods in that their consumers want to buy. The simple virtue of the profit motive demands accuracy.
The government, by contrast, have rather more mixed objectives. On the one hand, they presumably want to deliver good public services and so want accurate information. On the other hand, they need to lie to the public about the levels of immigration and their distribution for ideological reasons (they are trying to enforce immigration policies that most people don't approve of, so they need to obsfucate and confuse any research). Sometimes, as now, the two competing objectives collide. Hence the need to use the non-ideologically compromised research provided by the market rather than their in-house idiots in the Home Office.