| Author | Message | ||
     Buellshyter |
From The Daily Mail Tony Blair has turned Britain into a land where we are all prisoners by CHRIS ATKINS Even George Orwell would be shocked. He described the sinister machinations of a totalitarian police state in his novel, 1984, and laid bare the danger of eroding our basic civil liberties, including the right to freedom of speech and the right to privacy. Although he famously coined the phrase 'Big Brother is watching you', even Orwell cannot have foreseen just how prescient those words would prove to be. Today, in Tony Blair's Britain - which I naively voted into power ten years ago - we have witnessed a breath-taking erosion of civil liberties. The truth is we are fast becoming an Orwellian state, our every movement watched, our behaviour monitored, and our freedoms curtailed. Between May 1997 and August 2006, New Labour created 3,023 new criminal offences - taking in everything from a law against Polish potatoes (the Polish Potatoes Order 2004) to one which made the creation of a nuclear explosion in Britain officially illegal. Then there has been the incredible number of CCTV cameras - a total of 4.2 million, more than in the rest of Europe put together. And, yesterday, we learnt that the Government has agreed to let the EU have automatic access to databases of DNA (containing samples of people's hair, sperm or fingernails) in order to help track down criminals, even though many thousands of those on record are totally innocent How did all this happen? Who allowed it? To try to answer these questions, I have made a film, Talking Liberties, about the attack on our freedoms. I uncovered a disturbing roll call of ancient basic rights which have been systematically destroyed in the self- serving climate of fear this government has perpetuated since the 9/11 attack. First there was the Act which banned the age- old right of protest within half-a-mile of Parliament without special police authorisation. And who can forget Walter Wolfgang, the pensioner who was dragged out of the Labour Party Conference for daring to heckle the Home Secretary? He was detained under the Terrorism Act 2000, which gives the police unprecedented stop and search powers. In 2005 alone, this law was used to stop 35,000 people - none of whom was a terrorist. But this is only the thin end of the wedge - our civil liberties, enshrined in British law since the Magna Carta, are being whittled away. There has been an unprecedented shift of power away from the individual towards the state - but now this power is being used not to defeat terrorism, but to keep tabs on ordinary citizens. As well as a raft of repressive anti-terror legislation, there are the more insidious infringements of our freedom and privacy. We will soon see the introduction of the vast National Identity Register, linking all databases such as the DNA database to which the EU will soon have access. The tentacles of these networks will intertwine until they form a vast state surveillance mechanism, which can track every detail of your life: what books you borrowed from the library as a student, your sexual health, your DNA profile, your spending and your whereabouts at any given moment in time. Ministers are even creating a children's database, which will record truancy, diet, and medical history. And, of course, ID cards will be issued in 2009 - to be used every time we carry out routine tasks such as visiting the dentist. Soon, biometric data - your iris scan, fingerprints and DNA, will help to identify you further. And, all the time, there are those CCTV cameras - 20 per cent of the global total, even though Britain only has 0.2 per cent of the world's population. New Labour has an absolute obsession with these devices. Soon, more sophisticated cameras will be able to recognise your face and the information matched to one of the national databases. All cars will eventually be fitted with a GPS chip, officially to simplify road tax payments but they will also allow government agencies to track every vehicle in the country. There are, of course, more alarming implications to being constantly monitored - as Orwell understood. Soon, we will be living in an open-air prison. Some may ask: why does all this matter? The answer is that to surrender our identity and privacy so comprehensively is to give up something we will never get back. Although New Labour says its mania for data-gathering is all part of its plan to protect us, there's no guarantee that future governments (who will be inheriting a nationwide surveillance machine and the National Identity Register) won't use it to more malign ends. Totalitarian regimes have, after all, always collected information on their citizens. Hitler pioneered the use of ID cards as a means of repression. The Belgians left Rwanda with a bloody legacy by implementing an ID card system which divided the population into Hutu and Tutsi. When the 1994 genocide began, these cards proved a device for horrific ethnic cleansing, with one million people dying in 100 days. The Stasi secret police in Soviet East Germany kept millions of files in order to keep track of everyone in the country. Of course these examples are the extremes - but basic liberties such as privacy and free speech have been hard-won over centuries and history shows that we should not allow them to be brushed aside. This shift away from individual freedom towards state power has happened slowly, and almost without us noticing. Like so many others, I was proud to put a cross against the box next to New Labour in 1997 as a first-time voter. But now I have become shocked at the vast swathe of new laws which had been introduced, most of them in response to terrorism. We are told that this is all for the good - these laws, and the surveillance cameras and ID cards will stop terrorists. Is that the case? Sadly not. The London bombers carried ID and were observed on CCTV - of course it did not stop them committing their terrible crime. Intelligence experts say that most information leading to genuine breakthroughs come from informants, not through random tracking or surveillance of the general population. In any case, liberty and security aren't balanced on some delicate equilibrium, as John Reid, the Home Secretary, and Tony Blair would have us believe. History has shown us that it is precisely when you undermine people's basic rights that they mobilise towards radical groups. After all, one of the greatest recruiters for the IRA in Northern Ireland was the policy of internment, under which people were imprisoned without trial. Have we learnt nothing from our past? Stop and search laws applied to Britain's Muslim communities will simply polarise those groups. Instead, we need them to help us protect the country from terrorism. It's not all doom and gloom, of course - as I hope my film reflects. The sheer absurdity of the bewildering array of idiotic new laws has given us an abundance of bizarre and hilarious situations for our documentary. But behind this dark comedy is something much more disturbing. Faced with the threat of terrorism, the Government has told us that we must lay down our freedoms for our lives. Perhaps it has forgotten the millions of people from past generations who have laid down their lives for our freedom. I think we owe it to those people to turn this tide. | ||
| Slaughter |
Time to raise your taxes again. It's all being done for your own good afterall. | ||
| Akbuell |
As Will Rogers once said "Just be glad you are not getting all the government you're paying for." | ||
| 12r |
From the Daily Mail  | ||
| Rocketman |
Just this week Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman has criticised chief police officers for not following guidelines on policing UK roads, and placing far too much emphasis on police forces installing 'speed cameras' whilst reducing their number of traffic personnel. Either way, government or police are to blame for what is commonly accepted as stealth taxing. Next week sees 'national speed week' where many organisations get to fight back with their concerns. What isn't clear at this moment is what the weeks events will achieve, but there is a call by some serious individuals and agencies to scrap speed cameras. I can't see that happening myself. As for CCTV. It's the ones on tall poles in most cities that need cutting down. Rocket | ||
| Buellshyter |
For once we agree on something, Rocket | ||
| Rocketman |
I'm sure there are lots of things we'd agree on. Motorcycles for one, if you'd take your Buell hat off. Rocket | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Live off the grid, ride rural, pack all the ammo and guns you want, hunt off the land and brew your own home ethy to super power the Bueller. Start collecting purple gowns and Nike shoes for the next comet approaching. "The sky is falling chicken little?, I would believe you but my head is buried in the sand and I cant look up!" | ||
| Buellshyter |
Slicker, I'm not sure where you were going with that one | ||
| Ulendo |
Buellshyter - not sure if you read science fiction, but if you do, try to find Piers Anthonys 'Geodyssey' series. If you think Orwell pegged things with '1984', the final scenarios in the Geodyssey series will truly alarm you... | ||
| Buellshyter |
SECRET NEW PLAN FOR EU SUPERSTATE Friday June 15,2007 By Geoff Marsh for express.co.uk TONY Blair wants to hand the European Union radical new powers in his last act as Prime Minister, it emerged today. The Prime Minister has welcomed controversial plans to bring back the troubled EU constitution by the back door - totally bypassing the need for public referendums on sweeping new powers for Brussels. German chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested ditching the name "constitution" from the title and instead calling it an "amending treaty” - to avoid having to seek the approval of voters. French and Dutch voters rejected the original plan - which would hand Brussels the power to represent individual countries at the UN and change national laws - two years ago. Britain's voting rights would be reduced by a third under the scheme and our hard-won veto on European directives would be torn up. Britain could also lose the right to impose quotas on immigration. Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "If Tony Blair thinks he can hoodwink the British people by smuggling in the rejected EU consitution under another name, he had better think again. "He underestimates the British people. They will see right through any shabby stitch-up. "If the Labour Government sign up to a new treaty that takes powers from Britain and hands them over to the EU, the British people must have the final say in a referendum." The Germans believe "as much of the substance of the constitution as possible" should be kept, renamed and put into law. Scrapping the name will help Mr Blair reach agreement at what will be his last EU Summit and virtually his last public duty before handing over to Gordon Brown. But the document makes no reference to one of Mr Blair’s previous key demands - an “opt-out” from a shift to more joint European decisions affecting criminal law and justice. A Government spokeswoman welcomed the latest approach to what is being billed as one of the most important EU Summit gatherings for years. “We fully support the German Presidency’s desire to reach agreement on institutional reform, she said. "We welcome their proposal to return to the classical method of treaty change whereby the existing treaties would be amended. “We believe an amending treaty should help to make the EU more efficient. The more effectively the EU works together, the more that it is in our national interest as well as our international interests.” The German plan talks about calling the result of any Summit agreement a “Treaty on the function of the Union” - removing the federalist implications which have been plaguing efforts to get EU reform plans back on track. But the report makes clear the EU would still develop a “single legal personality” - a bid to give the EU collectively more weight on the world stage, and fuelling Eurosceptic fears of a further whittling away of national status in Europe. On the Summit agenda will be the removal from any new reform document of other contentious plans, such as promoting the EU flag and EU anthem. But the German Presidency expects to see a “charter of fundamental rights” given legal force as part of any reform package. EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg on Sunday for a first discussion of the options. EU leaders gather in Brussels next Thursday, prepared to launch “an intergovernmental conference” on the details of a new treaty if they can agree the outline. Neil O’Brien, director of the think-tank Open Europe, expressed surprise that a “single legal personality” for the EU was still being considered. It was an unpopular move already flatly rejected by the UK and would not, he predicted, survive in any final deal. Mr O’Brien went on: “This memo suggests that the new version of the constitutional treaty is likely to be more radical than expected, and it will strengthen calls for a referendum.” | ||
| Jackbequick |
So, on the cameras, they are there to help law enforcement people catch people breaking the law, right? That sounds like a good plan to me. Why on earth would anyone want to cut the poles down unless it was to avoid being caught breaking the law. Jack | ||
| Chainsaw |
If the populace is REALLY bothered by all of the watching eyes, I think some UK hooligans should organize a "shoot out the cameras' night. Everyone grab a sling-shot, mask their faces, and demonstrate some good old-fashioned civil disobedience. Why on earth would anyone want to cut the poles down unless it was to avoid being caught breaking the law. On principle I suppose. I see constant surveillance kinda like frisking every person leaving a local store...you know, 'cause there is a possibility that someone might have stole something. From what I have read, cameras do not stop crime. Criminals tend to move the crime to an uncovered area. | ||
| Buellshyter |
If the populace is REALLY bothered by all of the watching eyes, I think some UK hooligans should organize a "shoot out the cameras' night. Everyone grab a sling-shot, mask their faces, and demonstrate some good old-fashioned civil disobedience. In the spirit of V | ||
| Buellshyter |
AND THE INSANITY CONTINUES Bin bag 'spy camera' to enforce refuse rules A council is to hide a camera in a bin bag to catch residents who do not follow new rules about putting out the rubbish. Rubbish bins: Bin bag 'spy camera' to enforce refuse rules A spy camera will be put in a rubbish bag left in an alleyway Householders in a seaside town have been told to put their bins out at the front of their homes and not in an alleyway to the rear. They must also leave their rubbish out between set times to ensure it does not attract pests or miss the dust cart. To enforce the new rules, a camera will be placed in a rubbish bag and left in an alleyway to blend in with the surroundings to catch offenders. Those filmed breaking the rules will be given a ticking off. Repeat offenders could be handed a fixed penalty notice or even be taken to court and fined up to £1,000. The tiny covert camera, which has cost Weymouth and Portland Council, Dorset, up to £10,000, will also help catch householders who put their rubbish out too early or too late. The initiative has shocked local taxpayers. The spy camera is being introduced in the Park district in Weymouth, an area that suffers from fly-tipping. Residents in the area will have to follow strict rules which come into force on June 22. They will only be allowed to put out their rubbish between 8pm and 6am the night before collection and it will have to be at the front of their homes. Peter Bury, the council environmental health officer, said the camera will help enforce the new rules but also catch fly-tippers, graffiti artists and drug dealers. He said: "As well as the alleyways we will also place the camera in bushes or a brick wall to catch fly tippers, and drug dealers." Mr Bury said the device will not be hooked up to a control room and staff will study the footage after a few hours filming. He said refuse collectors will be alerted as to when and where it will placed in bin bags to stop them carting it off as rubbish. In March, a London borough announced plans to hide cameras in tin cans and bricks to catch out offenders. Ealing council in west London said the hidden cameras would catch people committing "major envirocrimes". More than 30 councils have already secretly fitted microchips to wheelie bins as the Government comes under increasing pressure to increase recycling rates. | ||
| Jackbequick |
One of the things that deters crime is the presence of police on the streets. The cameras are just a different kind of presence. Jack | ||
| Cityxslicker |
maybe I strung too many metaphors together. The purple robes and the Nikes are from the Hale Bob comet faction that thought the end of the world was coming on that comets tail and all committed suicide to be in the "enlightened new world order". the living off the grid notes were directed at the ultraparanoid urban dwellers, meaning if you truly cant stand the cams, live where they aint ie middle of f'n nowhere And the chicken little the sky is falling is for all the doom sayers that this is the orwellian end of times and we are subjects to "big brother" More surveillence does not mean any better policing, enforcement, or less crime, it just means that what is under the lense is recorded. not stopped, not pre-empted, not prosecuted, but recorded. PS it wasnt the stazi that initiated the records in E Germany, it was the communist party's practice of rewarding and promoting information of 'treason' against the motherland, whether real or imagined, the tips were used for purges and imprisionment, but were reported by the neighbor down the street that was probably jealous of your wife/job/car/apartment/family/pet/etc. | ||
| Buellshyter |
Slicker, what I should have said is, on one hand you appear to agree and on the other you seem to be mocking those that are concerned about the direction of western civilization. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Ah I suppose, I am always for ripping civil liberties from criminals. Problem is that who decides who is a criminal... Its a nasty double edge sword. But until they start requiring human geo-locating chipping, we are all pretty free to MOVE, Leave, ride & get out of stupidity's reach. Ed note, sarcasm never seems to come across here well. The chicken little sky is falling scenarios have been around for centuries. "The END" is always near |
