Writer's attitude

In your essay you are also asked to focus on the writer’s attitude in “Big Brother is watching you more closely than ever”.

Through this article, John Kampfner conveys a critical and concerned attitude towards the use of CCTV cameras in the UK.

This is first suggested through the article’s title which alludes to a dystopian scenario (the opposite of an ideal one) of a Big Brother society where individuals are constantly surveyed: “Big Brother is watching you more closely than ever: CCTV cameras, the spies in our midst”.

Big Brother is an allusion to the fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four which describes a society under constant surveillance and ruled by the Big Brother, in which individual freedoms are limited.

Throughout the article, the author’s attitude is occasionally ironical and sarcastic towards the authorities (government, police, and parliament):

Don’t get so agitated, a minister in the last Labour government once told me, most CCTV cameras do not work anyway. Of all the justifications for this Big Brother technology that watches over us from every street corner, this was the most original. (ll. 1-3)

He will report to Parliament next April. It will be intriguing to see whether secrecy-obsessed officials take any action. (ll. 100-102)

Sarcasm is used to convey a critical and disapproving attitude towards the way CCTV cameras are used by...