On eco-toffs and spies

According to IndyMedia, an employee of C2i International tried to infiltrate Plane Stupid, a direct action group opposed to aviation. (See also this Times article.) I love the comment here:

I recognise him – he’s often hanging out in bars in Fulham pretending to be important.

He recently tried to chat up one of my girlfriends. When she asked him what job he did, he said ‘security – but I can’t say anything more, it’s all hush hush if you know what I mean’ But two minutes later he was telling me that he had been ‘working undercover’ and he had been ‘infiltrating an extremist group that posed a threat to national security’.

True/false who knows. (Note also Ian Bone’s amusing take on eco-toffs.)

Wow, Mark Thomas has been spied on by one of his friends, the whole operation organised by Evelyn Le Chêne (described in the Times as a “grandmother from Gravesend” — no rhetoric there then). Moral for activists? Have loads of friends who are bored by politics and treat with suspicion those who share your interests?

Turns out that councils can spy on you, e.g., to check whether you’re lying about where you live to get your kids into a better school. Check out, e.g., this BBC News article — especially the video footage of the council guy where he’s very careful not to describe the issue as one of better/worse schools, and the guy from Liberty who only just about manages to avoid screaming “CAN’T YOU SEE THIS IS COMPLETELY CRAZY?”. The Guardian lists some examples of notes taken by the council spies:

“female and three children enter target vehicle and drive off”

“curtains open and all lights on in premises”

Worrying, yes?

Things I Learned in Greece

• Freddo metrios are very nice. (Iced cappuccino with a medium amount of sugar.)
• Political debates on the telly are hilarious, even with no knowledge of Greek. Participants shout in parallel, sometimes with the screen split in two or three so you can match lips to words.
• Young children are given puzzles about anaphoric reference.
• A phone conversation is about to end when you hear: “nai, nai… en daxi… daxi…. daxi… ella… ya.”
• You’re supposed to put used toilet roll in the bin, not flush it. (Thankfully I was informed of this before demolishing my host’s plumbing.)

There was other historical stuff there, too, apparently.