Last month, on 2nd May, Stewart Jackson, MP for Peterborough (Conservative), became concerned about Google Streetview:"There is already too much of a Big Brother culture in this country, and I think it is an unacceptable intrusion into people's privacy when you can go online and potentially be looking into someone's living room or back garden. There must be some private places left in the world and I just find the whole Google mapping thing a bit creepy and slightly 1984."
What a pity he hadn't made any of those points earlier about intrusive gathering of data, much of it started under the Conservatives. Still, better late than never, and his voting record is reasonably consistent with his expressed view.
But was there more to it than that? By 14 May, Jackson was caught up in an expenses row about having claimed £304.10 bill for maintenance of a swimming pool in his garden. He wrote to the local paper which ran his explanation. His explanation was basically the same as Dennis Skinner's explanation of his £800 sofa bed: 'I'm entitled because there's loads of stuff I haven't claimed for'. Unlike Dennis Skinner, Jackson accepts that he must pay the money back as this isn't an allowable expense wholly and necessarily concerned with carrying out his duty as an MP. Skinner still thinks we ought to be grateful to pay for his top-of-the-bloody-range guest bed.
Jackson may have been right to worry about privacy, though, as Google earth helped voters identify the swimming pool in the garden of his Tudorbethan home. We know Jackson lives in a roomy suburban Tudorbethan-style residence because it has been on telly. A crowd of about thirty people dressed in bikinis and trunks met up outside his house on Saturday and asked to use the swimming pool, seeing as how they had paid for it to be cleaned. Mr Jackson called the police, then complained about the waste of police time, although all he had been asked was if some strangers could use the pool. The bathers went back to the park, waving their flippers and snorkels. Still, just to be sure about the house not stormed by irate paddlers, four police officers stayed at the house for another thee hours.
Some people don't have any trouble getting plod to come out to their houses.
Author: Tynan Wierd
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