This is the sort of thing that makes you wonder about this country: Oxford council plans to require all taxis in the city to be fitted with “audio recording devices”.
Taxi drivers in the university town have been told that they need to install the £460 devices by 2015 or face having their licenses revoked. The microphones, accompanied by CCTV cameras, will activate once the ignition in the car is turned on and will remain recording for 30 minutes after the engine is turned off.
Presently, of course, it’s impossible to resolve “disputes over fares”. Obviously. And if you believe the council’s “reassurances” then you’re a nicer, happier person than me. All that, mind you, is beside the point and only a small part of the objection to being spied upon in this fashion.The council says the recording equipment is necessary to protect drivers and passengers as well as deal with any disputes over fares. Recorded information would only be accessible to the police or council officials.
There’s a larger problem: the government’s localism agenda, admirable in many ways, would give more power to these nitwits and even if one takes the optimistic view that stronger local government provides, in theory, incentives for better people to become involved it will take time for those incentives to work their way through the system. If it happens at all. Which it very well might not.
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