The Liberal Democrats have today called for better supervision of the use of surveillance powers: they think magistrates should have to approve any use of legal powers of surveillance. Fair enough. What I do have a problem with, though, is the suggestion often made in the debate around these powers that surveillance should not be used to tackle supposely "trivial" offending and anti-social behaviour. If like me you think laws on these matters should be respected and enforced, and you want to give councils the job of enforcing them - then councils should be allowed the tools to do so.