Scotland Yard nursery rhyme no. 2
March 13th, 2006
This little piggy deployed marksmen
This little piggy should stay schtumm
This liilte piggy creates a load o’ grief
This little piggy comes undone
‘cos this little piggy taped Lord Goldsmith as they spoke on the phone
March 13th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
And lets hope they send him,
wee wee wee wee wee wee,
All the way home.
March 13th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
I have no sympathy for anything that besets Ian Bliar because of this or any of his other actions but did he do anything illegal?
As far as I understand, recording a phone conversation as long as you are one of the parties involved and for ‘personal’ use only is legal. Playing it to a third party or making it public isn’t.
To be honest, wouldn’t you record all the conversations you have with the other members of HMG knowing what a conniving bunch they are?
March 13th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
You have to have the consent of the other party if you record a phone call.
(EDIT – Thanks to RIPA you can record for personal use, oh joy)
This is why if you tele-bank you get the EULA-like ‘calls may be recorded’ message, presumably it is within your statutory rights to ask that the call is not recorded.
As for Ian Blair (from what I’ve read) he has made good progress in tackling the racism of officers within the Met, it’s his public pronouncements and *rasher* decisions that let him down greatly and prove he shouldn’t be in that particular job.
The really annoying thing is that the government is habitually limiting the scope of privacy for the citizenry and as soon as something similar happens to themselves fists fly behind the scenes and the media is whipped into a frenzy.
March 13th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Indeed, but a POLICE OFFICER is not ever acting in the ‘personal’ when he is working; he is an employee of the state, and if he is was on the job while making the recording, this is totally unnaceptable.
Its like those traffic pigs who stop motorcyclists just to admire their Ducatti. When that uniform goes on, your personal curiosity and status as a civilian is removed, otherwise, they have carte blanch to excersise their curiousity, and use civilian law to get away with anything.