I have had a reply from Middlesbrough Council to my complaint. Good reading:

Dear ********

Thank you for your email regarding the treatment of an amateur photographer in Middlesbrough Town Centre.

I have viewed the video footage provided on the www.flickr.com website and can advise you that the security person identified in the footage is not employed by Middlesbrough Borough Council.

Middlesbrough Borough Council fully supports the view that it is perfectly legal for a member of the public to take photographs in a public place.

The Council will be speaking to the Town Centre Manager to ensure that the Town Centre Shop Managers are aware of this fact and that they pass it on to any security staff that they employ.

Ms Bernie Carr
Corporate Complaints Co-ordinator

If you are British please write to your MP to see a sea change. MP Austin Mitchell is campaigning for this and needs the support of as many MPs as possible.

If you plan to write to your MP here is a suggested text for use on the www.writetothem.com website

As you may be aware MP Austin Mitchell has tabled an early day motion to clarify the law regarding photographing in public places.
UK law grants photographers the right to photograph in all public places without interference. However in the current state of paranoia these rights are being trampled and some photographers are even being assaulted by private (or in some cases publicly paid!) security staff. Please view the video at:
www.flickr.com/photos/photodrift/2422740769

As a photographer I would ask you to support Mr Mitchell's motion as it seems that many police are themselves unaware of the situation as regards the law. motion viewable here
www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/labour_mp_austin_mitch...

Wow, another reason NEVER to go to Middlesborough - even the name sounds mediocre!
This guy MUST SUE - the UK is becoming the same as the US. The only language understood is financial disincentive! Only if the guards risk losing their jobs because the shopping centres must pay large settlements in damages will this stop. The police complaints commission must finally notify the police that they MUST LEARN THE LAW and understand that everybody has the RIGHT to photograph on the public throughfare in the UK. A pedestrianized walking street can never be a private space. It may be leased from the local council, but it remains (and will always remain,) public space. The same is not true of a shopping centre, the owners can ban photography in their spaces, but they would be foolish to do so.

I AM ashamed to be British now and I HAVE left the UK - and have become a foreign tax payer. I am NOT going to help finance this essentially criminal government!

Do I get a prize, I have already read six of them!

Looks like the links are down - Has Disney come on heavy?

my sister and I travelled to school on our own on public buses from the age of 7. We never had a problem. Modern day paranoia is extremely bad for children, and I very much doubt that there are more dangers in the street than there were 35 years ago. (Though there is certainly more traffic...)

Better little monkeys on motorbikes than big monkeys running a whole friggin country!

Hey,
nice looking couple.
Wouldn't find having them for neighbors!!! NOT!!!

Well, looks like I better buy that 50" plasma from a different store then!

"Its illegal to take photos on private property and the market is private property. This isn't a new law and is consistent from country to country" .... Sorry CURIOUSLY INCONGRUOUS but you are 100% wrong. It is not and has never been ILLEGAL to photograph on private property. The owners simply have to right to forbid it. There is NO law forbidding it per se. It is the right of the owners of the private property to take civil action against a photographer taking pictures within their space. The police will NEVER be interested.
(I do know this stuff, I have been a pro photographer in London for 25 years!)
I personally don't believe that the owners should be permitted to forbid photography in publicly accessible spaces, and am all in favour of flashmobs of photographers defeating this nonsense.

Right fellow photographers... Everybody pile into Spitlefields in your 1000s and take LOTS of photographs. We have to overwhelm the bastards... publish them all on flikr. There is no justification for this sort of nonsense...

Jeez, I didn't realise that they were FOURTEEN!!! At that age I was still using it to stir tea!

That's VERY funny! British indeed!
Seriously though, why do I never find out about these parties until it is too late!!! ;-)

A lot of newbie computer users (and some who are not so newbie at all!) put URLs into google rather than type directly into the address bar. They don't even KNOW that you CAN type in the address bar! So, I suppose it makes sense...

But it's not bigger inside than out! I feel cheated somehow!

sounds like a fun thing to hack!!!

On the advice of county's attorneys, however, Rajoppi said today she must forego all plans for independent voting!!!.

Why can't these small-minded people just HAVE sex instead of being totally offended by their own imagined implications of it everywhere they look. This is fucking ridiculous! Andrea Bailey, you are representative of everything that is wrong with middle America!

Well of course if we really wanted to hurt China we would have to boycott Chinese made goods, which is realistically now impossible, as I type this on a Chinese made computer (Apple) sitting on a Chinese made chair, no doubt lit by a Chinese made light bulb! We have made ourselves dependent on cheap goods which are supplied by an effectively enslaved under-paid workforce. We have only ourselves to blame for Chinese economic power in the world. As of June 2006, Chinese ownership of U.S. securities totaled $699 billion, making China the 2nd largest foreign holder of U.S. securities (after Japan). To read more on the implications of this see http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/99496.pdf
You can bet that there will be no official US reaction to the behaviour of China in Tibet!!!

As to EH's comment "Look, it's either this or the terrorists waltz right through and blow something up." What a load of TOTAL BOLLOCKS!!!! This will not help prevent terrorism even SLIGHTLY!

Yet another step into the TOTAL Big Brother mentality that is becoming C21st Britain...

DESPITE promises to the contrary when the system was initially installed, your car is now tracked by the traffic camera network wherever it goes on the road network,

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2005/221205surveillanceuk.htm

and you are filmed 300x in a day in central London.

How much longer before we need to show ID to travel on the tube! (Oh yes, I forgot... Our oyster cards (pre-paid travel cards...) ALREADY track our movements on the public transport networks....)

BIG BROTHER IS ALREADY WATCHING YOU in the UK!

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/07/heathrow-terminal-5-1.html

So much for personal liberty!

Not so frightening (I hear you say...) whilst in the hands of reasonably well-behaved government, but essentially everything is in place for complete state control, and that is a very unhealthy state of affairs.

Hey, I've seen guys racing these on youtube... COOLer!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfKWdqFlWYk

America, land of the free!!!!!!!!! Oh, not so free after all!!!!

nothing a little canister of CS gas wouldn't stop. Essentially these old guys are are harassing people on the public street. They should be named and shamed!

Drove on one like this in India (going up to Tibet.) It was mud-covered and pouring with rain and as soon as it straightened up the trucks would speed up. The carcasses of lorries in the valley bore testament to how dangerous it was. I won't rush back to that again!

These debuted in Paris, but now you can find them all over Europe. Unfortunately half the time they don't work! I think for men, the pop-up urinal is a much better idea!!! (no good for women though, unless they have VERY strong characters!!!)
Just discovered that they have started to install these in London - GREAT!
http://www.poopreport.com/BMnewswire/377.html
http://firingsynapses.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/111906-urilift.jpg

I hope that Buckingham Palace is coloured black - the royal family has always been the biggest draw on the British economy - worst thieves of the lot! Did you know that the queen doesn't pay income tax!!!! (as it is Her Majesty's government.!) She now pays a voluntary sum decided by her accountants. Bloomin' terrible if you ask me guvnor!

Hmmm,
knew there was a reason that I sold my shares in Adobe just before xmas...

Oh, they are not alone in their madness!
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/celebrity-baby-names.html

That's a wonderful surreal photograph. Quite beautiful in it's way.

Don't worry. It's not too long now before your ridiculous president is out of a job and hopefully some sanity will be restored. What a delightful legacy he is going to leave behind, at least 18 months of international recession (it's just BEGINNING! believe me!)

Thanks so much for that, fascinating and fantastic images. The man has an innate understanding of composition and drama. I have gone and ordered Mein Weit online.

Officer Rivieri should already be pounding the street - LOOKING FOR A NEW JOB! - If Baltimore PD has not fired him as yet, they should be prosecuted themselves for aiding and abetting a criminal act! His behaviour is totally out of order.

Does that mean he gets to be reborn!!! AGAIN!!!

Oh, yeah, 'There's nowhere like home' You forward thinking Kansans have got to go and protest outside this school. Or get some ruby slippers!

I would hope that this is another cop needing a new job!

Not to worry, the mindless f*cking oaf will be out soon and hopefully America will become saner again!

Increasingly dissatisfied with over-long excuses and prolonged delays in their wait for DSL connections, the crab people have taken matters into their own hands and assured themselves the fastest internet connections on the planet.

George Bush, you hideous undersea monster, you!

Gort, put the money down!

If Mserf buys Yahoo, it's very simple, yahoo will have no visitors!!! it's not so difficult to drop a yahoo web mail account!

The best sign I have seen outside a church was in Brighton UK.
A huge sign reading 'Life after death, Guaranteed"

Well I suppose you could TRY asking for your money back!!!

This looks like a subject that should be addressed in the TSA blog. I am quite impressed at the way they are reacting to public worries and queries.

My point is do we really want to make 'branch manager' at the local McDeath's a valid or tempting career choice? By giving 'A level' accreditation to these courses the government is sending out what I consider to be the wrong message to students. This is probably sadly a true sign of Britain's future economy, based on retail sales of poor quality inexpensive product. But school is SUPPOSED to inspire you and to be aspirational - sure that is idealism, but no kid in their right mind would aspire to work at McDs for any length of time (I HOPE!!!)

This is all part of the dumbing down of the British education system. Paper qualifications have always been worth very little, now they can be valued at precisely one "crappy meal"

"Are you lost?" "Please step into this soylent green processing chamber"

Had SUCH a GREAT holiday at this hotel when I was a kid - it's still fantastic, only thing is I can't afford it now! Go if you have the moolah, it's a wonderful experience.

"Do you want to play a game" this is insanity!

shouldn't this be called the "The homeland keep 'em paranoid because they are easier to control that way" show!?

too little, too late...

Just what I need to stop those pesky kids riding on my bumpers - hey why not flame throwers - oh yeah, I forgot, they already do that in S. Africa!... So humane!!!! http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9812/11/flame.thrower.car/

Ummmm, Pizza....

There's only one answer to this - publish and be damned - if Flawed actually had the audacity to make a law case of this they would damage their sales network hugely - imagine this situation - I just bought a new ford and I took a picture of my baby sitting on the hood... OOOOH sorry! You can't print that photo, Ford owns the copyright. What TOTAL BULLSHIT - In fact I will NEVER buy a Ford if this is to be their attitude! a few 100,000 saying the same thing will soon change their little corporate minds!

Hahahahahahaha screw you Fareham slopping centre!

This is another example of kneejerk fear and extremism. In fact, exactly what terrorists want us to do. Any terrorist wanting to photograph the centre could do it easily with a hidden camera or even a cell phone!!!!
I urge ALL people who live near the Fareham Shopping Centre to go in there and take pictures. They can't eject everyone, and they need to be shown just how stupid their policy is!

Would that be the Monsanto house with genetically modified cockroaches that eat the furniture and then you?! Or am I going mad? Or is that a different Monsanto??!!!

This has actually been proved as illegal in the UK (along with private wheel clamping.) As you say, they can remove your vehicle from their property but they have no right at all to fine you or to immobilize you - Sue McDonalds for millions!!! Yeh!!! Also, this sounds like yet another reason to boycott this scummy company!

The RIAA needs to be wound up - they are worse than useless and in fact are not protecting ANYBODY'S interests other than their own! Cut the funding ALL you record companies - you know that you are going to sell far far more at reasonable prices online without DRM!

ummmmm.. Pig brains.....

I suspect that the poor suckers who fell for this were ill-educated, under-achievers... (the kind of people least able to pay...) Now where can I sign up for these scans?!

ah, well here we have the first stirrings of 'Robot Rights' Just as well it is not in force yet or those guys would be fried!!! ;-)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6200005.stm

The MPAA are blood-sucking scum! They won't even play by their OWN rules!!! Not to worry, soon all their funding will be cut and the overpaid honchos will be out of a job! The irony of this abuse of © by these people is too delicious!

How bloody ridiculous! This is just going to be yet another way to make our children paranoid - Oh no, the bogeyman cometh!!! Absolutely crazy! Far Far better that the catholic church should actively do something about dealing with pedophilia in it's ranks. As I'm sure you all know, the (now) pope was in charge of running an organized scheme from Rome that hid the activities of these perverted priests for 20 years... "Crimen Sollicitationis" was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope. You can watch the BBC Panorama program on the issue at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm

Ah, thankyou AMERICA (fuck yeah!) Another little way to make sure that you are beloved in the rest of the world!

All that protection can't stop him from being an asshole!

This bastard needs to be prosecuted for grievous bodily harm - there was ZERO justification for that Taser use. That man needs to lose his job and go to JAIL! There is FAR FAR too much illegitimate use of Tasers now, they need to be classified as firearms and their use EACH and EVERY time fully shown to be justified. In fact EVERY Taser should carry a digital recording device so that there is video evidence for or against usage.

I have no problem at all with removing 'friends' from my list - like the young teenage sons of friends etc. Some fbers are obsessed with having as many friends as possible - well that just seems crazy. The thing to do is just to clear the list out occasionally. You can always say later 'oh, I must have deleted you by accident, I get confused with the interface!!!'

If you like this I'm sure you will love the irreverent (certainly not suitable for work) variations and songs by Adam Kay and Suman Biswas, two UK doctors. They created a huge unexpected underground hit (geddit!) with 'London Underground' and have their own variation on Gilbert and Sullivan. You can listen to their album (and buy it) at http://www.teamkudo.com/fitness/listen.php - be sure to listen to 'The Drugs Song' for the G&S variation!

If this is true it is INSANE - talk about setting yourself up for a fall - STUPID BEYOND BELIEF!

This actually happened to my dad in Italy - opened the toilet seat to find a great big grass snake in there. It turned out that the sewage pipe in the garden was cracked and the snake had got in and worked it's way back up the S bend! Disconcerting!

wow, feel my head for bumps before going through the xray machine - now THAT is technological advance! :-)

Crikey, next thing they'll be pulling up their roots and it's "Day of the Triffids" all over again!

What a ridiculous stance from BA - If they are blocking their wifi portal as well it is too much! It is the responsibility of users to ensure that their computers are blocked against unsuitable content (as it is at home and at the office.) To block something as inoffensive as Boing Boing is quite beyond the pale. When using their terminals they should offer the opportunity to block adult content (when logging on?) NO BA, you DO NOT have my cooperation. I am quite happy to boycott BA as long as this unreasonable behaviour continues, and I am sure that I am not alone. Why not start a campaign? 100,000 Boing Boing BA (non) flyers will soon get their attention!!!! Now show me that cartoon of the squirrel!!! ;-)