IMS_Blog

So a random Norwegian skied down a London Tube escalator [YouTube link]. Now, ignoring for a moment whether or not this was reckless, dangerous, insane, fun, entertaining, etc, there is a point I haven’t seen mentioned in all this coverage. According to the BBC News report it’s believed the video was made about a year ago. In other words, in one of the most heavily watched and under surveillance areas of the country, if not the world (the London tube) a man (having allegedly had friends stop passengers getting in the way) skied down the escalator and nobody noticed, until it was a big hit on YouTube.

There in is the pointlessness of all the CCTV and big brother activity of this country. It doesn’t prevent anything, and it’s not even very good at detecting it. It is useful for later analysis of people though, should you wish to have a wonderful overview of what individuals are doing in their law abiding daily lives. So long, presumably, as they don’t ski down escalators.

Incidentally, presumably the BBC take an officially dim view of pieces of their programmes appearing on YouTube, so what about parts of the YouTube video appearing in their news bulletin (at least online) without even an actual link to YouTube from their story?