First, they disarm you and chide you when thugs attack at will. Then they track you and then? Why, it must be that pesky freedom to communicate that's at fault: "British Prime Minister David Cameron said the government, police and intelligence services were looking at whether there should be limits on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook that have been used to spread disorder."
I realize the UK has tradition and law different to the U.S. Bill of Rights, but this seems a grave step even in that light. C'mon, guys, Orwell was writing a warning, not a blueprint!
Update: looks as if there's a UK mask ban in the works, too. It's shaved heads and grey coveralls for the lot of you, then. Up, now, up and in front of the telescreen for Physical Jerks! (or Yoga on BBC4).
Just more of their nanny state measures to "Protect" the people. Kind of like when they took all of their guns away. Now stabbings have been on the rise and they want to change the way knives are made. No sharp points on knives. Do these idiots know what a grinder is? Just when you think the government can't get any dumber, a better idiot comes along.
ReplyDeleteI still think Orwell was an optimist.
ReplyDeleteHe was Rebecca of Sunnybrook frickin' Farm; he got the psych right but assumed too small a target group and wholly underestimated the tech -- and how many people would "win victory over themselves [and] love Big Brother" without the least coercion, let alone Room 101.
ReplyDeleteAh, the statist's standard approach to crime:
ReplyDelete"If only we could ban / control..."
How's that ever worked out? Variously around the world, they've banned:
Machineguns
Handguns
High-cap magazines
Guns in general
Knives with a blade more than 4" long
Knives with a sharp point
Knives in general
And yet... CRIME CONTINUES! Indeed, it often gets worse.
In the 1983 movie "The Survivors", Robin Williams uttered a line that was supposed to be a lampoon:
"The root cause of crime is criminals."
Too many over-educated (often liberal) elites don't quite seem to grasp this. It's always something outside the person that drives him to commit a crime: poverty, violent video games, guns, "social injustice", etc., as if every criminal is a Jean Valjean: a really stellar, intelligent, compassionate chap who - through ABSOLUTELY no fault of his own - went down the wrong path.
Bah.
Yeah, there are people who make dumb mistakes. Sorry: they should pay for them. And then there are people who CHOOSE to break the law. They should DEFINITELY pay for their crimes, pay such a price as to (ahem) persuade them and anybody who thinks about doing the same thing that it's a bad, bad idea.
The people who are innocent should not have to pay for the sins of the guilty.
BTW: Ace had a post with these staggering statistics about Britain:
Detection rate of crimes is 5 per cent. Of these cases only 2 per cent are processed in court. Only a mere 0.3 per cent of all crimes result in prison sentence. Offenders deem themselves untouchable. Fines are seldom paid. In 2002 it was reported that tens of millions of pounds in unpaid fines were written off.
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4807
The average American probably has about the same chance of dying in a tragic blimp accident while commuting to work as a British crook does of going to prison. Who WOULDN'T be a crook in Britain???
Sigh! Once again we see the Limits of a Parliamentary System whose Sole purpose is to gain power for their Party. Go too Soft, you get the "No Confidence Vote". Go too Hard, you get the "No Confidence Vote". And when your Gooberment is a Coalition of the Right and the Left, with an extremely weak Monarchy as your Emergency Back Up, I'm really surprised the Commies haven't moved Marx's Tombstone and replaced Nelson on the Monument!
ReplyDelete"We shall fight on the Land, we shall fight on the Sea, we shall.... Oh screw it! Run Away! Run Away!"
It has to be something complicated. It can’t just be evil people, that would just be too simple.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/009906.html
ReplyDeleteLes,
ReplyDeleteAnd in Wisconsin, you get recall elections!
:)
Are the Groucho glasses with the moustaches and big noses still allowed, at least?
ReplyDeleteProtip: Always keep one eye shut when out in public doing nasty things. An awful lot of the facial-recognition software relies on inter-pupillary distances. Eye patches are good, too.
In my previous comment I was writing about normal people going about their business and not having to suffer government surveillance.
ReplyDeleteNow, for those yahoos rioting in the streets, I have one word:
Canister.
Is the Islamic niqab a mask?
ReplyDeleteThe collison between "anti-mask law" and "no religious discrimination law" will be interesting.
Justthisguy,
ReplyDelete"Now, for those yahoos rioting in the streets, I have one word:"
Actually, 'a whiff of grapeshot' is four words. ;)