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In recent years Britain has become the Willy Wonka of social control, churning out increasingly creepy, bizarre, and fantastic methods for policing the populace. But our weaponization of classical music—where Mozart, Beethoven, and other greats have been turned into tools of state repression—marks a new low.

We’re already the kings of CCTV. An estimated 20 per cent of the world’s CCTV cameras are in the UK, a remarkable achievement for an island that occupies only 0.2 per cent of the world’s inhabitable landmass.

A few years ago some local authorities introduced the Mosquito, a gadget that emits a noise that sounds like a faint buzz to people over the age of 20 but which is so high-pitched, so piercing, and so unbearable to the delicate ear drums of anyone under 20 that they cannot remain in earshot. It’s designed to drive away unruly youth from public spaces, yet is so brutally indiscriminate that it also drives away good kids, terrifies toddlers, and wakes sleeping babes.

Police in the West of England recently started using super-bright halogen lights to temporarily blindmisbehaving youngsters. From helicopters, the cops beam the spotlights at youths drinking or loitering in parks, in the hope that they will become so bamboozled that (when they recover their eyesight) they will stagger home.

And recently police in Liverpool boasted about making Britain’s first-ever arrest by unmanned flying drone. Inspired, it seems, by Britain and America’s robot planes in Afghanistan, the Liverpool cops used a remote-control helicopter fitted with CCTV (of course) to catch a car thief.

Britain might not make steel anymore, or cars, or pop music worth listening to, but, boy, are we world-beaters when it comes to tyranny. And now classical music, which was once taught to young people as a way of elevating their minds and tingling their souls, is being mined for its potential as a deterrent against bad behavior.

In January it was revealed that West Park School, in Derby in the midlands of England, was “subjecting” (its words) badly behaved children to Mozart and others. In “special detentions,” the children are forced to endure two hours of classical music both as a relaxant (the headmaster claims it calms them down) and as a deterrent against future bad behavior (apparently the number of disruptive pupils has fallen by 60 per cent since the detentions were introduced.)

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All 6000 pages are available at: http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

The director-general of MI5, Jonathan Evans, has issued a passionate defence of the Security Service against the “conspiracy theory” that it covered up its involvement in torture.

Mr Evans accusations made by Lord Neuberger, the country’s second most senior judge, that there was a “culture of suppression” at MI5 were “the precise opposite of the truth”.

As Mr Evans defended the security services against claims of torture, ministers also voiced their support in an open letter to newspapers.

In their open letter David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, said it was “disgraceful” to suggest that the UK aided torture, or was turning a blind eye to it.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Evans warns that the row over alleged human rights abuses would be used by “our enemies” as “propaganda to undermine our will and ability to confront them”.

His unprecedented response to criticism in print indicates the anger within MI5 at what is rapidly becoming its biggest crisis of recent years.

The row escalated on Wednesday when the Court of Appeal ordered the disclosure of seven paragraphs of evidence which showed that MI5 knew that Binyam Mohamed, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee, was being mistreated by the CIA.

Mr Miliband had tried to prevent the publication of the material.

The most damning criticism of MI5 was contained in an unpublished draft version of the court’s judgment, details of which were leaked to the media, in which Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, claimed that the Security Service failed to respect human rights or denounce torture, and had lied to Parliament about what it knew.

More at: MI5 chief defends security services amid torture ‘cover-up’ claims (Telegraph UK)

From a tactical military standpoint, land mines have a certain set-it-and-forget-it appeal; you blanket an area in munitions and move on, secure in the fact that if the enemy tries to cross that terrain they’ll find an automated resistance waiting for them. But we all know that land mines are also one of modern warfare’s most indiscriminate and devastating developments, with the capacity to kill and maim innocent people even decades after hostilities have ceased. To remedy this problem, arms maker Metal Storm has developed a virtual minefield that delivers the tactical advantage of land mines without blanketing areas with dangerous ordnance that could be left behind.

From a tactical perspective, the virtual minefield is even better than the real deal because it can be turned on and off to allow friendly troop movement across a “minefield.” The computer can even deactivate a specific path through an area to allow troops to move through, reactivating it when friendlies are clear.

Smart Virtual Minefield Offers Tactical Coverage Without the Ugly Unexploded Ordnance (Popular Science)

Metal Storm’s virtual minefield gets a patent (Gizmag)

A secret Bush/Blair memo seems to have surfaced.  The memo purports to show that a deal was made in which Great Britain would support the United States in an all-out war on Iraq.  The real kicker is that the memo is dated a year before the start of the war in Iraq in 2003.

Ex-Prime Minister Blair has insisted, throughout the Iraq Inquiry, that there were no covert agreements made regarding the invasion of Iraq.

Memo ’shows Blair Iraq war deal with Bush’ (BBC)

(Reuters) - Britain’s Ministry of Defense has had a close encounter of the credit crunch kind.

After more than 50 years of service, the ministry has shut down its UFO investigation unit, saying it could no longer justify the cost of running the service.

The ministry said it had found no evidence of a threat to Britain or proof of the existence of extra-terrestrials, despite the public sending thousands of reportings of UFOs to a ministry hotline and email address.

It said it held no opinion on the existence or otherwise of alien life, but added it had “no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings.”

“There is no defense benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate use of defense resources,” it said.

Any threat to the country’s air space would be spotted by radar checks and dealt with by Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft, a ministry spokesman said.

Resources would be focused on more important priorities, including the war in Afghanistan, where Britain has 9,000 troops fighting Taliban insurgents, as part of NATO forces, he added.

The dedicated UFO officer who dealt with the reports has been re-assigned to another post, saving 44,000 pounds ($73,000) a year.