out of control Border Defence Force

2008-10-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

I really do want to sound off about teh altest ludicrous HM Government - UB (University of Birmingham; or Urzad Bezpieczenstwa?) imposition: 10 contact times p.a. for foreign non-EU students. Presumably, if they do not turn up, we have to report them to soeone... Not sure who yet. Perhaps we even have to track them down??? In effect, we are being urned into government narks - Stasi UK. This is all to figh against terrorism??? This is rich coming from a berserk government which has not got the balls to admit its role in causing the credit crunch, has done bugger all in the way of ensuring energy security (no adequate gas storage facilities - if the pipes are blown, we will be switching off after 2-3 days) &c &c.

For a less ranting view, see what follows:

Dear Lynne and Karina,

I have been thinking about the surveillance/ point of contact impositions that are being thrust on us in connection with the Broder Defence Force; and the more I think about it, the less I like it. I suspect my concerns will be shared by many, perhaps even most, colleagues.

I would like to know under what specific legislation these demands are being introduced:

Is it something that has gone through Parliament

Or is it something that is simply some form of bureacratic directive?

Either way, may we see a copy of the legal instrument which supposedly directs us to do these things.

Or, is this simply the University’s interpretation of some government directive or other?

Do we tell the students? And if so, what? ‘H.M. Government / Border Defence Force requires that we keep a check on you on 10 occasions during the year’ ??

Do we say this to all students?

Do we say it only to foreign (non-EU) students?

Do we say it only to Home students (and tell them not to tell it to foreign ones)?

I do not see how we can NOT say something, if only because it is impossible to keep something like this secret – on way or another, it will get out.

The repercussions of that on our relationships with students do not bear thinking about – any senseof trust, confidentiality&c will be lost: lectureres, personal tutors &c are simply part of the surveillance state.

We are potentially breaching confidentiality. Data protection &c - is this legal? (I won’t even begin to contemplate the morality of it all).

Could we or the University be sued by students?

The leftover of the old MMH Board is meeting on Wednesday, 29 October: student reps have been specifically invited. Do I mention this to them then – or when?

Next term, I have to talk to parents at AVDs: what, if anything, should I be telling them?

Last, but by no means least, I did not become a University lecturer to become a government Nark. Does my contract with the University extend to this role? What ahppens if I refuse to co-operate? Can I be sacked or can some other form of sanction be taken against me? If so, by whom? The university? The DPP?

All this raises, to my mind, some pressing legal issues. Perhaps Karina could make some enquiries of the Lawyers.

Dr Jerzy (George) Lukowski

Reader In Polish History

Head of Department, Modern History

This, of course, has got sod all to do with National Security. This is all about a government minister being able to say 'We are protecting the poblic.' Complete and utter bollocks. It is 'protecting' the public by tick boxes: the government can say we are doing this, that and that: Tick, tick, tick. So when an indepnedent study is made demonstrating the whole BDF enterprise is simply another bureaucratic black hole into which taxpayer's money is being poured, the Government can say, as it almost invraible does, 'That does not tally with our information and is therefore worthless]

Great - even when I was researching for my PhD in communist Poland, I only had to report to the police once a year. God, how innocent and naive the commies were...

Orwell would love this.

Bogger

out of control Border Defence Force