"well if you've got nothing to hide"

[911motorsport]

Just watched BBC's Inside Out article on ANPR policing. First boiler was when the police officer being filmed told us that one of ANPR's main roles is as an Anti Terror tool being put together in readiness for 2012

but the other one he trotted out that gets me every time is...........

"if they have nothing to hide, what are they worried about"

As this is the line favoured by most purveyors of surveilance / infringement / abuse of rights, I thought I would put this before the razor wit of fellow PH'ers, so that we can come up with the definitive antidote to this line.

Something short and possibly witty; but more importantly a response that delivers a killer blow to their way of thinking! If you come up with a good one it could become a phrase that gets used throughout the land!!

any thoughts??

Edited by 911motorsport on Wednesday 18th February 20:02

[Brown and Boris]

Are you trying to hide something then?

[911motorsport]

Brown and Boris said:

Are you trying to hide something then?

it's a start

[D-Angle]

A good answer to anyone who says this, is to ask when is convenient for you to come round and set up a cctv camera in their front room.

[esselte]

I read an article today about pubs applying for their licences only to be told, by BiB, that they would not be granted unless the pub was equipped with CCTV and that the images were to be made available to the police whenever they wanted them....

[tinman0]

911motorsport said:

"if they have nothing to hide, what are they worried about"

Makes my blood go cold when I hear that line used. Its a phrase frequently used by the hard of thinking who have no concept of rights.

[Nobody You Know]

"Why don't you ps off and Die?"

"Terrorist? My Arse"

Seriously though...

I'm no wordsmith but maybe something along the lines of:

"It is a self fulfilling prophecy, if you treat everyone like a criminal everyone will act like a criminal"

or....

"Instead of using £millions to moniter everyone badly, use the money to moniter the criminals properly"

or in a simily way...

"would you use a bulldozer to weed your flower beds? No? Then why moniter 65 million peoples every move to follow a dozen terrorist"

[911motorsport]

tinman0 said:

911motorsport said:

"if they have nothing to hide, what are they worried about"

Makes my blood go cold when I hear that line used. Its a phrase frequently used by the hard of thinking who have no concept of rights.

Exactly! that's why it's worthy of a good retort; something we are quite adept at on PH


ETA "would you use a bulldozer to weed your flower beds"? is heading in the right direction

Edited by 911motorsport on Wednesday 18th February 20:13

[robinhood21]

Yet we can no longer photograph the police.

[Snake the Sniper]

Just ask them a few simple questions: Do you wk in the shower? Have you ever had homosexual thoughts? Ever cheated on your partner? They will normally splutter and either get all upset or ask you what business is it of yours. At that point you just reply, that's right, what you do in private is no business of mine, and what I do is no business of yours. Now kindly fk off back into your little paranoid box.

[pits]

I might not have something to hide, but I certainly dont have anything to show you, !

that ok?

[911motorsport]

robinhood21 said:

Yet we can no longer photograph the police.

we're getting there!

[cazzer]

"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"
"Mr Goldberg, now just wear this yellow star"

[node]

I have nothing to hide, but my privacy

[Timberwolf]

Nothing to hide... not like, say, £116k in misappropriated second home expenses, perhaps?

There is a deliciously ironic going-around, coming-around comeuppance in that story.

Not that there will be any actual comeuppance of course, 'cos, y'know, politicians.

Edited by Timberwolf on Wednesday 18th February 20:28

[Swilly]

Brown and Boris said:

Are you trying to hide something then?

Yes, my privacy

[sstein]

I like these quotes.

If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. - Cardinal de Richelieu

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

[911motorsport]

node said:

I have nothing to hide, but my privacy

or, if I may; "I have nothing to hide, including my rights to privacy"

[singlecoil]

If anyone is concerned that the authorities will know what time they drive to work, or when they visit their parents in Cornbwall, or all the other things about their movements that will be revealed by ANPR cameras, they could perhaps take comfort in the fact that the people who will have this information will have so much of it that they won't be taking any interest at all in any particular individual.

[MartG]

911motorsport said:

"if they have nothing to hide, what are they worried about"

Sorry, are we talking about MPs expenses here ?