Fact of the day

Moraymint

It's the way the world is going. Think about it: the bad guys are winning, if they've not won already. I don't know about the US, but here in the UK there's no question we now live in a soft, totalitarian state. And it's getting worse by the month.

We (that is, citizens like me who cherish their freedom and the least possible interference in their lives by the state) are being suffocated slowly by apparently well-meaning politicians who are struggling to deal with circumstances largely of their own making.

By seeking to persuade us that open-bordered, multiculturalism is the route to socio-economic nirvana, we're creating an unmanageable, unworkable and ultimately unsafe society.

It's common sense. But common sense is now the last thing that any politician applies when governing us poor bloody serfs - where "governing" means little more than applying increasing pressure on our necks with a legislative jackboot.

I'm not in the least bit surprised to learn that the NSA is sucking in information like light into a black hole. Our politicians are losing control and - don't ever forget this - knowledge is power.

Nazi Germany anybody?

Ken

Not quite Nazi Germany in the UK yet Moraymint - we aren't either that efficient or hard-working as a nation these days. However if you look back at totalitarian East Germany or Romania - I think there are strong echoes unfortunately.

Amateur photographers taking standard photographs in London often run the risk of coming up against one of the Dad's Army of police support officers and having their time wasted by these under-trained 'minions'. Hobbyists are forced to know the law BETTER than the 'police' do to be able to defend themselves against charges of 'criminal activity' - such as taking a sunset picture over the Thames or a character shot of flower seller in Oxford Street - and having to defend their cameras against attempts to force the deletion of perfectly normal images.

'You might be a terrorist' is the cry. If a child is within 10 yards - 'you might be a paedophile'! What arrant nonsense.

'National security' 'terrorist' and 'paedophile' are words which are bandied about by these under-trained support officers and their private sector equivalents. Their lack of training MUST surely be questioned

I'm old enough to remember when the forces of law and order were respected by and respecting of the public. Co-operation was the name of the game. Our present state - thanks Ms Smith and the two Blairs - is risible and shameful.

The genie is out of the bottle - and the REAL terrorists and perverts must be laughing at the response of our Keystone Cops.

Noa Zrk

Well they aren't very good at using it are they? The Bullock Bomber still managed to get his US visa, airplane ticket and boarding card despite his dad's personalised reference.
Far more dangerous to our liberty is all that mundane stuff about us in the HMRC, PNC DSS and Council computers. Unless of course you're a convicted criminal, in which case any linkage of this data will likely transgress your human rights...

thomas

Maybe that's part of the problem? Maybe they're so swamped with information they aren't targetting their efforts on the right people?

Fergus Pickering

Thomas, I am sure you are right. Who could wade through all that crap? What are the chances of your child being seriously assaulted by a paedophile? Bloody small I would have thought. As for being unseriously assaulted - I would have thought that happens to every child born. Just as every woman, (and most men, come to that), has had to ward off the attentions of someone they don't fancy. It's called life and it happens 'out there'. Or out here from where I'm standing.

Beer Moth

Yes, libraries are poorly stocked these days.

Douglas

If you are interested in how an intelligence network does not function properly, read "Harlot's Ghost" by Norman Mailer

Ken

Damn right Fergus

Justicia

@Ken:
It is absolutely infuriating when we see how the police (and to be fair, councils and other government agencies who have been empowered; power corrupts, etc) abuse terrorism legislation for mundane tasks.

Just because it is easier to tell someone to stop behaving off in public due to terror laws, or just because a particularly bad officer doesn't like their wrongful conduct being recorded for review does not mean they can wave the Terrorism Acts at a member of the public to gag them.

The issue is that the extraordinary powers given to the police can be engaged by little more than a passing suspicion (not in strict law, but on the evidence if a policeman was ever brought up on it court, without a doubt) of perhaps-maybe terrorist activity. The police should be required to have provable concern to act before they do so, or else our civil liberties will be worthless.

Ken

Yes Justicia I agree.

Elements of our police are running round acting almost like the Baseejies in Iran. Witness the death of John Charles in Stockwell tube, or the guy walking past being battered to the ground - and dying as a result - and the vast ammount of footage from mobile phones and tv cameras showing how our 'forces of law and order' were behaving at the climate change protests - like thugs some of them - kettling legal protestors illegally.

We now see mobile phones providing evidence of Iranian police murder (which they deny of course). Isn't this similar to UK protesters at the climate change protest?

Under Smith and Blair 1 and 2 I always felt that the agenda of the police had been changed (without public consent or approval) and that under the sham banner of anti-terrorism - they were more simply - running out of control.

Like attack dogs running amuck they need pulling back into line and being directed back towards what they are SUPPOSED to do as policepersons of the United Kingdom.