Comment 88 by xmaseveeve :

What is the point of spending money on cctv, if people can cover their faces? Should police discount Muslim women (who may not even be women) when examining cctv footage? How are these obliterated persons to be held to account for their movements, or be asked if they witnessed anything? Are they to be considered part of western society at all?

Are they ever stopped and searched? Should police ignore suspicious behaviour if the person is wearing a burka? If police tracked down a Muslim woman suspect seen on cctv, would there be riots if she were taken in for questioning?...

Wouldn't it be easier just to have the same law for everyone, and say that, in a free country, to protect the freedoms of others, you must not deliberately and unnecessarily hide your face in public?

Sorry to head off in a non-burqa direction but how does living in a free country fit in with covering the place with CCTV ? Obviously there are enormous advantages in being able to find CCTV footage if you are robbed or assaulted. But we might well pay a price for this at some point in the future when the government has the capacity to track the movements of anyone at anytime. I think it's a pity that this is happening in many countries without any real public debate.

Michael