Thanks to Caron Lindsay for today’s guest post. Caron’s a Lib Dem activist, she blogs at Caron’s Musings and at Lib Dem Voice, and she’s here on Twitter.
So, you’re on the Glasgow subway with some friends and one of them does something cute or funny or otherwise worth recording for posterity. You take out your phone to capture the moment…..
What should happen next is….nothing. Life should go on as normal. However, if Strathclyde Partnership for Transport gets its way, new bye-laws could mean that you’re on a slippery slope to a £1000 fine. The operator has put their new proposals out for consultation and they include the controversial clause 12.1:
Passengers must not take photographs, or make video audio or visual recordings on any part of the subway.
There is a get out clause – but it involves you obtaining the written permission of SPT in advance. So much for spontaneity.
This brings to mind the situation under the last Labour Westminster Government when amateur photographers were apprehended by police under the controversial Section 44 of the Terrorism Act. This report from the Independent summarises how people innocently taking photographs of public buildings, tourist attractions and even a fish and chip shop found themselves being stopped and searched. By and large, although the law applied in Scotland, it was largely ignored. I wrote in 2010 that while over 200,000 people had been stopped south of the border, only 79 searches had been recorded here.
I always tend to take the view that if an authority is given a power, it will use it. That’s why we need to make sure that any powers they have are both necessary and proportionate. Why, then, do SPT want this photo ban? According to Amateur Photographer, SPT said:
Our company policy has always been that consent must be sought prior to any photography taking place, and this is in line with security restrictions at any major transport hub, including railway stations, airports etc.
It also allows us to ensure that any such activity does not disrupt the operations of the network in any way.
How on earth the group of friends in my example could potentially disrupt the operation of the network in any way is beyond me.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie was quick to condemn the proposals:
Whichever bright spark came up with this needs to be told to drop it. This kind of nonsense distracts from the real fight against crime and terrorism.
We have seen what happened in the past under the old Labour government. People were arrested under terrorism laws for wearing t-shirts lampooning Tony Blair or for shouting ‘nonsense’ at a conference. Strathclyde needs some strong liberal voices to shout ‘nonsense’ at this plan.
On Twitter, Education Secretary Mike Russell described the plan as “Utterly daft.”
I’m sure that many people who aren’t involved in politics will agree that this restriction is ridiculous.
It doesn’t have to be this way
Happily, there is something we can do about this. If you agree with me and the many others on Twitter yesterday who thought the proposal is a piece of nonsense, you can respond to the consultation on it and the rest of the bye-laws by 15th June.
The photography ban is only the tip of the iceberg. Some of the other proposed bye-laws, also carrying a potential £1000 fine for their breach, are equally questionable. Failing to report lost property to a member of staff, singing, using musical equipment in a way which might annoy a reasonable person, being drunk (which isn’t defined, but may well apply to a fair few people taking the subway home on a weekend night) or going the wrong way up or down an escalator all carry the same penalty. So does trying to get on a train before the last person has left and trying to jump the queue. These things can be rude, but deserving of a four figure fine?
Truly dangerous acts, like going onto the track, have the same penalty as the petty, which is a ridiculous state of affairs.
Have a read of the proposed rules here and make sure you send your response to the consultation by 15th June. It needs to go to:
FAO: Joanne Gray
Glasgow Subway Byelaws Consultation
Transport Policy Directorate
Area 2 D North
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ
or e-mail joanneDOTgrayATtransportscotlandDOTgsiDOTgovDOTuk
Subway Snap-In
Such authoritarian proposals are crying out to have fun poked at them. A few of us were discussing on Twitter yesterday that we should encourage everyone to take as many photos as they can on the subway over the next few weeks and post them on Twitter, using #subwaysnapin. I’ve created a Facebook page as well. Be as creative as you can. Add in a campaign slogan or placard if you like, but let’s show off a Glasgow institution at its best.
#1 by David Bennett on May 21, 2012 - 11:38 am
Great page and fantastic writeup of this. I’ve started a campaigning site at http://www.pictureoursubway.co.uk to try to make sure this doesn’t come into force and I’m also tweeting at http://twitter.com/picturesubway – would be great if you could check them out!
#2 by Doug Daniel on May 21, 2012 - 12:24 pm
“So does trying to get on a train before the last person has left and trying to jump the queue. These things can be rude, but deserving of a four figure fine?”
Hmmmm, while a lot of the things you mention (singing, using musical equipment, being drunk) seem tantamount to trying to ban “fun”, I must admit my eyes lit up when I saw these two. I particularly despise people who try to board a train when people are still getting off, and I remember trying to disembark from a train at Glasgow Central once, only to be almost bowled over (and I’m pretty solid) by a flood of people who started getting on the second the doors opened, scurrying in like cockroaches, desperate to get to whichever unimportant place they had to be. I was particularly annoyed by an old woman at the front of the queue, as we all know old women are the first to moan about “young uns” being rude, and also the first to skip a queue because they think old people are entitled to special treatment as a reward for the amazing achievement of managing to not die yet.
(Oops, got a bit sidetracked there – I’ve never forgiven that stupid old woman who cheekily zipped in front of me and my mum at the supermarket about 17 years ago, or the one who thought my sister should give up her seat on the bus, despite being laden with a school bag, two carrier bags and a violin.)
Anyway, we do seem to be getting ruder and more impatient as a society. There was an article in the Sunday Post this weekend where the writer tested out how much people still adhered to queue etiquette. It seems absurd, and rather self-defeating, to have to “enforce” politeness on people, but unfortunately that seems to be where we’re at. A sad indictment of the supposed evolution of our species. Mind you, there are safety concerns in regards to people barging past others when getting on or off a train, so I suspect that’s the real reasoning for those two examples.
But banning people taking pictures? Don’t be ridiculous.
Mind you, there is that rather ugly trend some people participate in of slyly taking pictures of someone on a train and posting them on Twitter, saying “hahaha look at this person doing somefing wot I fink is stupid”…
#3 by Caron on May 21, 2012 - 2:44 pm
Doug, I see your points. An authoritarian could use the Twitter photo thing as an excuse to ban all photography, anywhere, though. It’s down to what’s proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances.
Sometimes the platforms are so crowded that clearing a path for departing passengers is also well nigh impossible. There are all sorts of pressures at busy times, not that I’m excusing the rudeness.
#4 by Doug Daniel on May 21, 2012 - 5:02 pm
To be honest, if there was really any public need to stop the Twitter photo thing, it could only possibly be done by banning cameras from smartphones… So not happening, then. To be fair, often the person saying “haha, look at this chump” often gets far more abuse back at them for being an idiot…
I’ve yet to see an example where people couldn’t just move to the side a bit more to let people off the train. The main problem is when they stand right at the doors, in an effort to make sure they’re FIRST on the train. People crowd round desperately, but I refuse to be drawn in – I’d rather stand than act like a prat.
Of course, people could just do what I do when getting off the train and make themselves as big as possible, thus preventing people from pushing past…
#5 by Caron on May 21, 2012 - 2:45 pm
David,
Your site is absolutely brilliant – I shall plug it as much as I can. If you could plug the #subwaysnapin too, I’d really appreciate it.
#6 by Craig Gallagher on May 21, 2012 - 3:26 pm
My immediate thought upon reading this rule is that it is in response to shenanigans such as these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptHJlk0kVs&feature=related
But the principle is absolutely correct. We crossed a Rubicon under New Labour where the state started to prioritise paranoid security concerns over trusting individuals, which I have always found deeply ironic given the individualist impulses behind the drive to neoliberalism.
The British state’s response to new technology and security concerns has been cackhanded from the start, and it legitimates idiotic bye-laws like this one. My hope is that it goes and proves unenforceable.
#7 by Doug Daniel on May 21, 2012 - 4:57 pm
Ah yes, the subway challenge. It just shows you how remarkably slow the Glasgow subway really is. I’d love to see someone trying it between Buchanan Street and Cowcaddens, because that feels like the slowest segment of the whole lot.
#8 by Barbarian on May 21, 2012 - 10:31 pm
I thought this was a wind up at first. Subways are one of the easiest targets, especially since they are in an enclosed space.
They cannot start banning people taking pictures. “Professional” terrorists would not be so obvious for starters. Stupid law that gives some git in a uniform the opportunity to dish out fines.