I was going to do the usual thing and keep my mouth shut about the £200 fine for not recycling accurately, as there is a very good blog further down about that. However, hard as that is to believe, there’s much worse.

A Register article just blew away my residual sanity:- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/20/pub_fingerprints/  The title is

Beer fingerprints to go UK-wide

That is, pubs are to get money to fingerprint customers. Seriously.   Pubs in Yeovil are already doing it. There is a nicely understated piece in the Register article that points out quite how voluntary the pubs entrance into this scheme is- they won’t get a licence if tehy don’t and they can open late if they do.

This reminded me of another article in the Register a few days ago that had already pushed the proverbial envelope of calm too far for me to express an opinion on it in moderate language . That was http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/17/mps_on_kiddyprinting/  Schools are apparently fingerprinting kids – allegedly so they can issue library books….  A simple rubber stamp used to suffice.

These articles are apparently genuine. I’ve found lots of other references to the schools one. Does anyone feel more secure with this stuff. I can sleep easy in my bed knowing that the local publican and school librarian are carrying out ad hoc surveillance at a level that George Orwell would never have dared present in his fiction.