British Insanity

You couldn’t make up madness on the level of the current British Government. This is a group of losers on a heroic scale. Led by the hapless and hopeless George Brown, the once feared Chancellor of the Exchequer has proved to be one of the most inept and unlucky Prime Minister’s this country has experienced in the modern era. This is exacerbated by some of the most ridiculous legislative ideas we have ever seen.

The latest manifestation of this ineptitude is the serious proposal whereby the Government will electronically collect every phone call, e-mail and Internet visit made in the country. They will then use any of this information subject to an individual coming under investigation.

Remember this is the same Government that has lost and mislaid most of our Health and Tax information during the last year. On the bright side they did apologize, so that’s OK then.

Why does the Government think they might need this mountain of information? No one could answer that question logically because if they really did need this why not collect every single snail mail letter, what about recording every meeting while we’re at it? Perhaps because the whole idea is totally mad.

Before the counter argument is produced like a tired fig leaf, let me state that you don’t necessarily have anything to hide because you want to protect a citizen’s right to privacy. It should be an inalienable right. Remember also that the Draconian counter terrorism laws we already have in place have not proven effective. The enormous weight of counter terrorism economic compliance legislation has been in force for quite a while in this country, and is a very good example for us to look at. These rules, including having to prove your identity for almost every financial transaction, producing your passport even for opening a bank account, have so far not resulted in a single arrest.

What it all does mean is that our security services have almost limitless access to all of our information and that there’s nothing we can do about it. Even in an avuncular, moderate and paternalistic democracy such as our own, I am very worried by these powers. Imagine, once these laws were in place and our Government, or the situation in which we found ourselves, more extreme, how these laws could be used against any of us.

If you don’t like these proposals let your friends know. Each of us is responsible for informing our media outlets and Members of Parliament.