I find myself, again, blogging about Civil Liberties in the United Kingdom. I was reading The Independent during a break at work and came across this story and this story. It is really disappointing that in 2008 we must fight in order to protect and get back what we hold most dear to us: our liberties!
Since the abhorrent attacks on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 the Labour Government of this country has passed rafts of legislation curtailing our civil liberties under the guise of protecting us from Terrorism. Helped by the media, they’ve create a fear that need not exist in order to pass right-wing, draconian laws that aim to track and control the population of the United Kingdom. The terrorists seek to destroy our way of life and the Government is giving them what they want while telling the British people that we must not let them win and we must not let them destroy our way of living.
Britain prides itself on it’s Human Rights record and its liberal Civil liberties, it’s so proud that it acts as the democracy police (along with the USA) and exports these into countries around the world. The Government talks about the lack of Civil Liberties and Human Rights in far away countries such as China while systematically destroying OUR civil liberties.
Some in Britain talk of boycotting the Olympic Games this year; I say forget about China’s lack of Human Rights and Civil Liberties and fight to get our own ones back. Upsetting as it is that China and other such Nations do not have civil liberties and Human rights, we are heading in the same way. We allow the Government to spread its propaganda favouring its draconian measures to curtail free speech, hold all of our personal data on one big National Identity Database, and detain people for 28 days without charge because we think they may be a terrorist. It’s an outrage. There was a time that this blatant disregard for the rights and freedoms of the British People would have caused a revolt (not that I advocate a revolution), but now we just accept the continuing curtailment by the Government as a need to protect our security.
We’re descending fast into an Orwellian world and I do not want to live in that kind of world. When will the proposals for CCTV in people’s homes monitored by the state be brought forward? Don’t fool yourself by saying it’ll never happen – it’s all so close to happening!
prout de jure 