For hundreds of years, Britain has been a bastion of democracy, a champion of the basic rights of people. Its advocacy in the United Nations, and in the Commonwealth has always been to free individuals from the tyranny of government. It has balanced the oxymoron of the British monarchy with the growing need for accountable governance since 1215, when King John signed the Magna Carta (the British even feel this is the best symbol of “Britishness“). A constitutional monarchy without a (written) constitution.
Ironically, Queen Elizabeth and her Princes are powerless to stop the Labor government’s incremental removal of the rights of the British people. Now, Britons are told where to smoke, and no, this not due to the infamous British sense of, umm, sensibility. The more insidious infringements, however, occur on a daily basis. An hourly one. A minute-by-minute scale. in each second of every day. That is the violation of the right to privacy.
Gordon Brown
It is not surprising, though, that the former Exchequer, the Right Honourable Dr Gordon Brown MP would want a more meticulous view of his subjects. The new British Royalty at 10 Downing St continues to pursue the oppressive policies of Tony Blair and his government. In fact, Brown wishes to promote “new, tougher” security measures in the same vein. That’s more surveillance, more detention for new arrivals, more strip searches, more limitations on movement, more “security.”
How has it come to this? A government now watching its own people. Trolling its citizens. Subjecting them to a 24-hour watch not unlike prisoners in their home. UK has turned into its very own Big Brother House. There are CCTV cameras everywhere (1 for every 14th Briton). Overhead, satellite pictures are taken of “suspicious” citizens. Transactions are recorded in secret rooms. Sounds like 1984 all over again. Sounds like an oppressive regime.
What’s alarming is that this is happening in Britain. A First World country. A democratic nation. Where are protests? Where is civil society? Is it now un-British to defend your own rights? Okay, there may be pockets of resistance to this. But we do see more of that happening in Third World countries where rights are even more limited, where people cherish their freedoms.
Maybe citizens think these measures are warranted. After numerous security threats, including an attempted car bombing in London, you’d think that the British were jittery enough… but the real word here is paranoid. People are scared. And fear is pushing them in the wrong direction: searching for wolves among the sheep. They might even want to search the empty, ghost flights of the British Airways.
When a democratic nation concedes to the terror, and is driven by fright, then these terrorists have achieved their goal. Now that’s real terrorism.
humanity at its finest 