Nothing to hide?

Following the widespread media sneer at Cameron's "Hug a Hoodie" speech the other day, I have been having a bit of a think about this much-debated sartorial issue. As anyone who lives in a built up area will agree, clusters of swearing, spitting and behooded youths are intimidating and, whether justlifiably or not, give the impression to passers by that they are contemplating or have just been engaged upon a mini crime spree. There is something about the furtive nature of the Hoodie. He can see you (and size up what you are wearing or carrying and who is with you), but you can't see him. In fact, you'd be lucky to catch a glimpse of his nose or eyebrows, even if you were brave enough to risk a quick sideways glance in his direction (never an obvious look, unless you're looking for a fight).

Defenders of the hoodie point out that Hoodies are merely trying to protect their identities, in a reaction to the fact that we are, as the inhabitants of these fair isles, among the most photographed people in the world. In fact, William Rees- Mogg writing in the Times in January states that "Britain has four million CCTV cameras, which gives the UK a quarter of the world’s cameras to photograph 1 per cent of the world’s population."

And I would tend to concur with this reasoning. Why should the local Council, the police, petrol station owners, shopkeepers, your pervy neighbour, etc, be entitled to record your image and whereabouts on their CCTV cameras? This rings especially true if you are doing nothing wrong.

The problem is, a significant (albeit small) number of Hoodies cover their identities precisely because they are considering doing something wrong. These thugs are well aware that in order to secure a conviction of crime, the police are going to have to produce some proof that they were involved. In the absence of witness testimony, a grainy CCTV image of a hooded figure at the crime scene might just fail to nail the defendant.

I disagree with the governmental line which is being used to justify everything from ID cards, databases, increased CCTV, phone tapping, etc, that if you nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear, however, I do think it somewhat fictitious and downright naive to pretend that Hoodies are simply troubled youths in need of some TLC. Come on Mr Cameron, do you seriously believe that someone who chooses to wear a hooded top, in the middle of Summer, is not up to no good? We don't.