Wasn't he Fired?

Have I missed something? When did David Blunkett get reinstated as Home Secretary?

Today he is sounding off against microphoned CCTV and he has thrown in the name of a famous novel - which shows how much he means it. I would have thought Blunkett of all people would be ecstatic to think that finally he could gain some benefit from secret cameras, but apparently this idea is slipping over "the edge".

This is from a man who brought us Force Mergers and the three digit non-emergency national number for the police which will apparently be in use by the end of 2006. He is also the guy responsible for the fact that I cannot file any job and will receive an email every day until I have ticked a little box which says that I have told the victim we will never catch the person who stole their hedge.

The idea that triggered his tirade is directional microphones to monitor conversations taking place in crowds during the Olympics. Yet again the government has managed to come up with an idea that will spawn conspiracy theories among those who think the police have nothing better to do than sit around listening to people's private lives. My biggest worry is the suggestion that a "senior officer" will be needed to authorise the use of this system. This means yet another Chief Inspector being seconded from my force and will lead to an inexperienced sergeant taking over as inspector and someone like PC Bloggs becoming sergeant. My day will come...

What amazes me about the whole thing is:
A) We have microphones that can record from 100m away.
B) Someone seems to think the system will be working and switched on when it is actually needed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright of PC Bloggs.