The in-your-face authoritarianism of the New Labour regime cranks up week by week as further powers taken in legislation steam-rollered through Parliament or, more shamefully, passed on the nod, is activated by the Executive. Leaving the United Kingdom will shortly require an exit permission to be obtained on line at least 24 hours before travel. To attach a £5000 penalty to failing to supply the personal data required before departure is a blind; you will not leave at all without compliance, not least because transport companies are liable as well as the individual traveller.
Secured within the confines of the country the population is required to conform not to just the laws but to the ideologies and attitudes embodied in the regulation of society. Regulation is enforced by regime officials employed throughout our lives in regime agencies; it is enforced by extensive surveillance of many aspects of social behaviour at work, in consumption, in education, in health, in communication, and in measurement of conformity to social norms.
Avoidance of interaction with regime agencies and provision triggers enquiry and investigation - higher levels of surveillance.
Overt protest leads to formal criminalisation and punishment.
People in England think that soon, not now but by this time next year at latest, they will be permitted to remove these permanent regime structures. What they will be permitted to do may include entering a polling booth and choosing another set of highly rewarded administrators, and this will pacify many and their sense of unease.
Others know that much more is needed and asked of most of us.
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6 comments:
OK, I surrender, time to sign up as a Civic Enforcement Officer; If you can't beat 'em, join 'em !
"Overt protest leads to formal criminalisation and punishment."
Calfy found guilty of terrifying a policeman yesterday. Two testified - did you know they have officers whose sole function at demos is to gather evidence? i.e. not to police, but to criminalise - that they had not been so scared in 15 or more years.
Labour have destroyed the judicial system.
Yes, I saw, Elby.
Blow.
Why the magistrates go along with the police is beyond me. When I was cross examined the counsel for the prosecution said to me:
"So a policeman was telling you not to do something- that makes it wrong, doesn't it?"
I said
"I don't think that a policeman telling me not to do something necessarily makes that thing against the law"
I felt the magistrates shift as though I was spewing out sacrilege. The counsel sagged though. She was almost shouting out her points in frustration. She knew she was beaten.
counsel for the prosecution:
"So a policeman was telling you not to do something- that makes it wrong, doesn't it?"
It makes it clear what has happened to the rule of law.
Oh, Calfy, we are all so frightened for all our children you're going to have to look out for us as well as look out for yourselves and each other.
We shall not be moved.
Free the Barton Barton One.
KD, I suspect you are smarter than the prosecuting counsel. That may not have helped.
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