Big Brother author George Orwell’s former home fitted with camera doorbell to keep watch on passersby

  • Oh Mr Orwell would be turning in his grave! :joy: :male_detective:
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There is an irony there, for sure :open_mouth:

But lots of what he said would happen has happened

Do you remember at the beginning of 1984 where they have to do exercise via the telescreen and he gets shouted at for not bending low enough?

Always reminds me of the Peleton ad…

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Whoa! I didn’t even think of that…but yes, absolutely! :scream:

He wrote popular fiction, before that he was a policeman and a school teacher, so authoritarian.

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Clearly knew what he was writing about then!

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Na! just guess work. And he was wrong about 1984…It’s only happened recently.

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What is wrong with good security surveillance to help protect your property? My home has several CCTV cameras connected to the central system. There is a notice alongside the bell push to alert possible felons and as far as I’m concerned I always like to know who is calling before I decided to open the door or not. I can even talk to the caller before deciding from the comfort of my recliner via the system. My home’s frontage is open to The Green and as such I feel good security is essential for this old couple.

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Not wrong about a lot of things he saw coming though, just about 40 years out on the day :fearful:

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He was a policeman and a teacher at the beginning of his career though?

His later experiences as a down and out, the Spanish Civil War, Fascism and the rise of Stalin, plus being watched by MI5/MI6 for 40 years probably influenced him more

Although he did have a rep as being a bit of an authoritarian. Homophobic, and he beat his pupils. Plus when his friend came home drunk he locked him in a room and hit him with a stick!

We’re all an odd mixture, aren’t we? Perhaps he hated what he saw in himself

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These days everyone should have a surveillance system. So many thugs about.

We have cctv.

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You see, I sorta agree with you, I’m glad you feel safer

Plus, if your not doing anything wrong, why mind being filmed?

But then I agree with ID cards too

But I can see it could be open to abuse by an oppressive government, having all our activities on video. And it might depend on their definition of doing anything wrong

But I think often it works for our freedoms too. Police brutality, for example

I bet the George Floyd thing would have been well covered up in the past when there weren’t so many mobile phone cameras around.

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If you are driver anywhere in the UK then you already carry an ID card. I would not mind in the slightest if general ID cards were introduced, but cant see the point as the PNC has full access to all of my registered details and my criminal record if I had one.

True, but a lot of people aren’t drivers. Easier to combine drivers licence details, passport details etc onto one ID card

HMRC can access your details too :fearful:

:rofl: I speed read that as “good security is essential for this ODD couple” :rofl:

Neither would I. In fact, when I lived in Rome, and as with ALL Italians, I HAD to carry ID with me at all times otherwise I was breaking the law.

What surprised me was a recent delve by police combined with DVLA found that far too many ‘drivers’ had not taken a test or held a driving licence, so were not insured and a danger to all of us🤬

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Oh yes, the cost of lessons and taking the test, a lot don’t bother

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…and soldier ( Homage to Catalonia)

You forgot to mention ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ Bruce…

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Is that an occupation now? Like telephone sanitisers and telemarketers?