We do not yet know how many tens of thousands of people braved yesterday’s rain, lining The Mall and other strategic points in London to get a glimpse of the Coronation. What we do know for certain however, is that someone was watching them all – let’s call him Big Brother.
According to the Evening Standard, police used facial recognition technology in central London during the Coronation. In addition, 11,500 police and 10,000 military were on duty, bumping the official attendance figures up by 21,500.
Call me a cynic, but is this mere coincidence, or is the Coronation being used as an experiment in the use of facial recognition technology, and potentially yet another erosion of our basic right to anonymity? We have no guarantee that such technology will not remain in place after the ceremony and, of course, if a would-be terrorist is caught, or if the day passes without incident, this will undoubtedly be claimed as a success for the surveillance; I confess, I have misgivings.
There have been, thankfully, other expressions of concern at the introduction of facial recognition during the Coronation. It must be bad, as it has united those mortal enemies, The Guardian and The Daily Express in a rare display of agreement.
While naturally the Coronation is a very important day for London, the use of such surveillance techniques could leave us resembling just another day in Beijing. Facial recognition technology is everywhere in China, used to control the population, and it can be no coincidence that China is the biggest supplier of this kind of equipment.
This is arguably not the best start for our King. We have been assured that people holding up ‘Not my King’ posters will not be targeted; but they will be recognised. The Metropolitan Police have stated that the technology is going to be used for those wanted for offences, or under relevant offender management programmes. This is what a Metropolitan Police spokesman said:
“The watch list will be focused on those whose attendance on Coronation Day would raise public protection concerns, including those wanted for offences or have an outstanding warrant for arrest issued by the courts, or those under relevant offender management programmes in order to keep the public safe.”
Don’t they already know who these people are and where they are? If facial recognition technology is so good, it makes you wonder why they do not use this already, everywhere? Certainly we could do with a few cameras scattered around our less salubrious inner city estates, to cut down on knife crime? Or how about the odd one positioned along the south coast, to slow those dinghies down a tadge?
In fact, it appears the authorities may already be using them en masse, as we are not referring here to a couple of cameras outside Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace. Astonishingly, the Metropolitan police already have ‘almost a million’ of these devices located across London. Almost a million! To give an indication of the scale, that means roughly one CCTV camera for every 10 members of the public, and estimates that you would be captured on video up to 70 times per day. The forthcoming operations around the Coronation may simply be an excuse for normalising such surveillance, gaining public acceptance for something which it seems has already slipped beneath the radar…watch this space.
This country is becoming more dystopian by the day. And while it is a cliché, you can’t help feeling that someone in the depths of Westminster has been reading Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four a little too closely. My advice, if you plan on attending any major events in London, is to wear a face covering; after all, they were very popular—compulsory even—a few months ago.
Jack Watson is a 14-year-old schoolboy, who has a Substack about being a Hull City fan. You can subscribe to it here.
