SOME weeks ago we highlighted the measures being taken to safeguard residents in a Bolton high rise council block, in a bid to fight crime. We pointed out that as part of the price of making life more crime-free we would have to get used to having our movements monitored by surveillance cameras.

Now Bolton housing chiefs are stepping up the use of private detectives and video observation equipment to fight racial harassment in council estates.

All this has Orwellian echoes of 'Big Brother is watching you' - perhaps, but if this is necessary to safeguard our streets and homes, then we will have to accept it. The alternatives, with possible no-go zones in town centres and fortified houses, are too frightening to contemplate. Let's accept that this is the shape of society to come...

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.