Our civil liberties are being eroded!

[omnipleasant]

Not that I can think of a single way in which this supposed trampling of freedom adversely affects my life, mind you. Or the life of anyone I know, for that matter. Or many people at all, for that matter.

But still, that's not going to stop me getting all hysterical about the terrifying ORWELLIAN erosion of our ANCIENT FREEDOMS!!!



Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data are "pervasive" in British society and threaten to undermine democracy, peers have warned.

The proliferation of CCTV cameras and the growth of the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy, the Lords constitution committee said.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7872425.stm

PS - did anyone find Shami Chakrabati's student rant on Question Time last night really, really funny?

[yord]

THATS PROBABLY COZ YOU AINT GOT A LIFE OTHERWISE YOUD KNOW EXACTLY WHY

[mids]

True. There was a time when you could call a blackie a gollywog and nobody would bat an eyelid. Now look at us!

[omnipleasant]

I know Mids. It's PC gone mad, just like what happened in 1984.

[yord]

the biggest civil liberty of all is of the acceptance for passports

[flatandy]

Did you see the delightful Shami on QT last night. I don't think CCTV cameras are particularly insidious but, as she said, the government ignoring court rulings and refusing to release information on how British agents have been using torture under the aegis of the Americans is, really, a pretty serious erosion of rights and liberties.

As for the DNA database - if it becomes anything like universal it actually does threaten liberties in a number of ways.

[Woolf]

Sound like QT might be worth watching

[ricklinc]

No suprise that our resident socialist and admirer of the former Soviet Union is all right with the idea of the state having all the information and surveillance it wants on ordinary citizens. Just how thick is he?

Even if this government wasn't a crock of the Brown stuff are you sure the next one won't put all the awesome intelligence to use on selected citizens? Supposing the torys turn out to be as bad as you say and they've got a big file of information on some socialist agitator who is posting dissent. Are you sure that they couldn't find anything to use in making your life difficult? Would you be comfortable with any Third Assistant Deputy Pointless Paper-Shuffler in your local townhall sifting through your file?

I'll give you an example. A few years ago I gave someone a lift to a dentist. There wasn't space in the carpark so I parked on the roadside for 15 minutes. When we came out this grim faced arsehole told me I'd been partiallt blocking his drive for 20 minutes. I apologised and started to get into the car. He then announced that he was a council officer and had taken a note of my registration number. I paused, shut the car door, walked back to him and told him, " And I know where you live." which made him back off and shut up. So that was over. But with a co-ordinated national database such an officious git could have run the number plate, sifted through the information on file and bided his time until something came up. Maybe I'm late getting a tax disc. Maybe I'm applying for planning permission. Maybe my daughter needed to change schools. Lots of little ways to settle a grudge. That kind of petty cnut seemed to be the sort who would mount a webcam looking at the cars outside his drive and make a little list.

It's giving power to useless little fcukwits, one of which I can imagine Omnipresent being, and allowing their warped little minds to fcuk with the lives of anybody else. There would be much more of that than there would be terrorists captured by this essential technology.

[flatandy]

No. Although it had the delightful Shami, the rest of the mob were shocking.

Geoff Hoon, who even when he's right, you want to kick him.
Theresa May, who even when her party are right, and the government are wrong, completely equivocates and doesn't get the boot in, because she's desperate to be populist.
Nigel Farage, who is always wrong, and in a horrible, jowly, comedy litte Englander way, a sort of sub-Express-columnist, who really, really wants a good kicking.
And Will Young who has no business being on there at all.

[omnipleasant]

"Supposing the torys turn out to be as bad as you say and they've got a big file of information on some socialist agitator who is posting dissent."

If a future government is that malign then they'd bring the necessary laws and tools in themselves.

Oh and Question Time was really crap. Andy's summing up is about right (although the Ricklinc-esque liberal bedwetter Shami Chakrabati did have a pretty hilarious hysterical rant about the torture thing)

[cobblers]

Will Young? On question time? FFS!

[cobblers]

And Omni, not at all surprised you don't get it. You're actually a fascist with a chip on his shoulder who just THINKS he's socialist.

You are the guy in Lives of Others (except he finally realises who wrong he is)

[omnipleasant]

How is the EROSION OF FREEDOM WAAAAHH!! affecting your life, Cobbrers?

[flatandy]

The thing about erosion of freedoms is that it doesn't affect your life at all or it completely screws it. The more erosion there is, the greater that chance of being screwed is.

[cobblers]

We're becoming slaves to an overweening state rather than the state being there by our request and at our service Omni. As such it is a total perversion of the fundamental principles upon which a democracy is predicated. Most educated and thoughtful people realise that. You don't. As I said I'm not surprised you do not recognise power corrupts.

You should see that film Lives of Others - no doubt you'd come out of the cinema saying they had it coming to them. Daring to express criticism of the state, they got everything they deserved. In short, you're an absolute cnut.

[omnipleasant]

"We're becoming slaves to an overweening state"

Oh dear.

[feral]

Omni doesnt have anything to worry about .There's no CCTV footage of him buying a golliwog anywhere

[kog]

Not that I can think of a single way in which this supposed trampling of freedom adversely affects my life, mind you. Or the life of anyone I know, for that matter. Or many people at all, for that matter.

Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data are "pervasive" in British society and threaten to undermine democracy, peers have warned.

The proliferation of CCTV cameras and the growth of the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy, the Lords constitution committee said.

It begs the question - if the erosion of our civil liberties doesn't affect anyone why are governments seeking to erode them?

But lets be realistic here, havng cctv on every street corner watching our every move and keeping a national dna data base to be checked against crimes committed doesn't really instill confidence or trust in the law abiding citizens of this coutry.

In effect the government-citizen relationship by the erosion of civil liberties is sending out a message government no longer trusts the people who elect them.

When your wife or husbad starts reading your mail and looking through your pockets its usually because of a breakdown in trust.

[Scooby Do]

"You don't know what you lost 'til it's gone"

Jonie Mitchell

Big Yellow Taxi

[Libby]

I'm just wondering where it will all end?! Will anything be left as personal?! We have identity theft already. It concerns me that with DNA databases nothing will be sacred. We will all just become numbers logged in a computer . . . . what am i saying?! . . . . we are anyway i guess - National Insurance numbers, National Health numbers, Bank Account numbers,
Credit Card numbers . . . . it won't be long and a computer will log what we eat for breakfast!