Action threatened against fascist BNP

Who? John Wadham, 57-year-old legal director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Why is he in the news? The EHRC has written a letter before action to the British National Party (BNP) over possible breaches of anti-discrimination law in its constitution and membership criteria, which appear to be restricted to white people. There are also concerns over its employment practices and provision of services to the public. The letter, sent to party leader Nick Griffin, asks the BNP to make changes to comply with the Race Relations Act 1976 or face an application for an injunction. The BNP says its rules are legal and that it is an exempted organisation under Sections 25 and 26 of the act, which permit exclusive ethnic organisations with a membership of 50 or more.

Background: Articles at London firm Birnberg under Gareth Peirce, qualifying in 1989. Legal officer for Liberty in 1990, director in 1995. Deputy chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2003 before taking up current post in 2007.

Thoughts on the case: ‘This case is good evidence of why we need a statutory body with the power to bring such an action. Our predecessor, the Commission for Racial Equality, did not have the power to bring proceedings in its own name and there were few people from ethnic minorities who would have sought to join the BNP then take legal action over the fact that they couldn’t… As a regulator we have a statutory duty to investigate possible breaches of discrimination law. We’d take this action against any political party.’

Dealing with the media: ‘The media understand our job is to be the guardian of discrimination legislation. We’re not a campaigning organisation – our mission is set out by Parliament to be objective and even-handed.’

Career highlight: ‘The two issues that I’ve been passionate about throughout my career have been equality and human rights. For the first time there’s a statutory body to promote both. As a lawyer I can’t think of anywhere better to work.’

Catherine Baksi

Bluetooth “Big Brother” tracks festival-goers

Researchers are using Bluetooth technology to observe the meanderings of tens of thousands of festival-goers at a top European rock festival, hoping their findings will launch a new generation of tracking devices.

The team from the University of Ghent in Belgium believes the research could yield new satellite navigation applications for the retail and security sectors.

“We have installed 36 Bluetooth scanners across the site and along a few surrounding roads, as well as bus stops,” the university’s Nico Van de Weghe said on Friday of the project at the Werchter festival, northeast of Brussels this weekend.

Within a radius of 30 meters, the scanners track mobile phones equipped with Bluetooth, a type of short-range wireless technology which allows different devices to connect with one another, often to transfer files.

But the masses flocking to see Coldplay, Kings of Leon or Metallica need not worry about their privacy, Van de Weghe said.

The researchers will only track the devices’ MAC address — a number that identifies each device on a network — which cannot be traced to phone numbers or personal details.

“Werchter is a very interesting case,” Van de Weghe told Reuters, adding that this is the first time his team, working on a wider research project using new technology to track moving objects, will collect full data on a live situation.

The team is carrying out research on geographical information systems, such as satellite navigation systems, and is hoping to be able to track moving objects in real time.

“Tracking movements via Bluetooth could become very interesting. It could help retailers keep track of the number of customers numbers at different times, ” Van de Weghe said.

The technique could also be used by security services to track suspicious movements, or monitor evacuations at mass events.

Some 80,000 people from across Europe attended a sweltering first day of the festival in the small town of Werchter, 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Brussels, on Thursday, with thousands more expected on Friday and over the weekend.

(Reporting by Antonia van de Velde; editing by Mark John)

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