more rights out of the window..........

[Martin]

just listening to the news - it appears the government is now demanding the right to hold inquests in private, with their own representative chairing it, rather than a kosher coroner.............. is this UK 2008, or Nazi germany circa 1937???................
be afraid, be very afraid..................

[Ranter]

It is the UK 2008,which is what makes it so frightening. Never thought we'd see this kind of erosion of civil/ human rights in this country in this day & age.

The worst thing for me is that most people still don't see this as a problem, they are buying the lie that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear & are ignoring lessons of history. Hitler was democratically elected & introduced laws which systemically removed rights from a huge section of society by convincing the masses that it was for their own good. As Pastor Niemuller said:

First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Next they came for the Trade Unionists
And I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for me
And there was no-one left to speak out for me.

[Martin]

there are times I despair........ what hope is there in a country where in a recent poll of under-20's, over 20% thought Winston Churchill was a fictional character, but over 50% believed that Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes were real........

[Helsbells]

I feel very upset when I hear things like this. We are so not free in this contry at all.
I swear if they ever bring in those black boxes for our cars that record where we go, and how fast we travel then I will not have a car!! Or I will find some way of stopping it from emitting a signal. Its invasion of privacy.
The same goes for ID cards, I feel very cross about those too. Sorry for the rant, just wanted to get that off my chest!!

[QuakerBear]

I share your worries. When you hear about things like this it is very frightening, it makes me want to jump ship before it's too late and it also worries me what worse might be to come. The government of the UK seems of have a very unbalanced approach to freedom. They have decided that freedom from something (e.g. violence, risk) is far more important then freedom to do something (e.g. be anonomous, have privacy, self asses the risk of situations). Unfortunately by demanding compleate safety for ourself and our familiy as individuals, and by being more open to litigation as a means to recompense, we are complicit in this shift in emphasis. I don't know how we can redress the balance as I fear it may mean people, individuals and society at large, letting go of many of the rules that we have come to expect and rely on as a means of keeping us safe.

Let me state here, I will not have an ID card. I will not act in a violent way, nor condone it in others. Yet I will act in the strongest possible way to oppose this regulation of individual freedoms.

Anyway, enough of my early morning verbal wondering...

[Arimiel]

fortunatly they put blackboxes only in trucks/lorries here in german... but they want to save the personal computer data (all what they can get due to the internt) of every person for half a year... Bavaria is even doing a solo and is pushing to put that law there already in effect...
The funny thing is, that i am not as conceerned over my privacy in germany as i am about my general freedom here...
Here are to many people concerend about falling back into the nazi time....(me included... every time a nationalistic-konserativ politcal party has its posters outside .... well.... paint or scissors get a really hounorable job...
but my countrymen... are a little to law loving for my taste.... they love to ban items... I can understand cigarrets in gastronomy.... and smoking cars.... and maybe (they didn't decide yet) alcohol.... but chimneys.... they want to ban chimneys..... .... the funny thing is that i can understand almost every law the german politics plot.... but its the bureaucracy that is driving the averange german nuts....one of my familys friends brought an old house....it is under monument protection.... there was a wall were stones started falling on the pavement... endagering bypassers.... he recunstucted the top of the wall... but then someone frome the city cousil came and said that he couldn't do that without an official aproval.... so he had to take down the repaires and the stones continued to fall down on the pavement....
sight.... i think all the prejudices others have about germans... are true... only the leather pants isn't our beer (german saying....) thats a bavarian thing.... ahm..... i am wandering out from the subject.....i should stop now...

[justskint]

High all. Newby here.

This government are hell bent on withdrawing all of our rights, why, when the climate warms-up and oil and food are in short supply they want us compliant!

Sorry folks didn't want to spoil your day. Keep digging!

[Smooth Hound]

even the rights we have are only there if we do as we are told and live as they say we should as soon as you dont those rights you thought you had disappear, and im not talking about behaving responsibly, not stealing or killing, etc, i am talking about being told i have to take part and contribute to this bl dy chirade of a system , of which i know is destined for self obliteration. nigh on slaves we are, we get very little say over how we live our lives, it comes to something when you cant even live naturallybecause they make it impossible,

[Helsbells]

SmoothHound, I feel the same!! I am so cross with the "system" I cant tell you. I really feel quite rebellious in the sense that I would not be willing to comply with certain things that are being talked about. I dont know what will happen, if I would be arrested or what but Some things I will just not do.

[Smooth Hound]

yes its all getting too much, yet its compulsory to send your kids to an establishment of so called education, where they either learn how to live with being bullied, turn a blind eye to others being bullied, or becoming a bully them selves, this just about sums up what this system is all about, and it really gets me down, it would be ok if i thought it could be changed with enough effort, but i know it wont, because everyone seems to think that it should be the way it is. i just want to leave it all myself , ibut they have covered every corner. now you cant even live on a low wage , i am self employed , i work 30 hours a week and earn 15/20 pounds per week, then i get topped up to my income support rate, or the rate it would be if i was on income support, which for me was ok, my partner is the same and we get our rent paid . community charge etc, but now they have made it so they soon wont pay for the 2 bedroomed house we have as we only as a couple need one bedroom, so we will have to find the additional 100 pound a month, even though there are no one bedroomed houses/flats in our area, and the house we have is the cheapest we can find, and im not allowed to keep more than 15 pounds each a week earnings, if we do then it will be deducted from our benefits, . we have been trying to get things together so that eventually we would be in receipt of no benefits, and we are happy to live on little. but with these changes it means we are just not going to have the time rquired to do it our way. which basicallymeans that i will have to sign on, and then they will have to pay me the sme for doing nothing, which i dont want to do, so the only way round this is to not rent a house. So basically if i dont want to take a full time job, and add to this fiasco of a whatever you call it, then i am going to have to live in a caravan in laybys and barren land. Which i have done before, but then i have to put up with ar h les hooting all night, hassle off the gestapo, and a possible beating from fascists. I really hate it all now and cant see where it will all lead for me. Ive got my turbine , battery bank etc, thats the only plus thing, as everything else we have got together over the last couple of yrs , like greenhouse and so forth will have to be left behind, my alpines which i have been growing and trying to build up sales for will all come to a halt, just when i may succeed, my worm farm i have been building up and seen no return from as yet as i have been building it up and trying to get sales for my worm compost ,and all the work i have done teaching myself to turn wood, will have to stop. And this is all down to their moving of the goal post. Apparently to stop unemployed people taking advantage of the system. all i can say is is that in my case they have done the opposite. I had to have a complete change in the way i earn my money due to being very ill a few yrs ago, and being unable to continue with forestry which was what i did, i decided to start doing the things i enjoy and on top of that in my opinion help the planet etc and add something to societry, but because i have no initial capital i am expected to go and get a job doing something i dont enjoy and on top of that add to this mees. Well i wont , i have my concience , and i have to live with myself. But saying that i dont know how i am going to do that. In short they have got us where they want us, ALMOST

Now theres a moan for you if you dont laugh youll cry

[Ellendra]

I find it more than a little creepy that so many different countries are going through exactly the same things right now. National ID cards, destruction of freedoms, economies eroded by government bureaucracies, increasingly dumbed-down education systems, the criminalization of self-defense, health care that hovers between useless and deadly, etc, etc, etc.

I find myself reading the headlines and having to double-check which country they're coming from. Everything you guys just described is also happening here in the US.

[Smooth Hound]

its frightening, i wonder whether the time has arisen when they say your either in or your out, if your in you do this this and this, if your out your out, get out and scavenge a life, but be sure we are going to make sure you get nothing that we decide we want. maybe im paranoid but thats how it seems and its changing for the worse fast. sometimes i almost find myself thinking it would be better if they just got on with it,

[Ellendra]

One of my favorite authors, Claire Wolfe, has a saying:
"America is in that awkward stage. Its too late to work within the system, and too early to shoot the bastards."

She said this back during the Clinton administration.

-Ellendra

[Smooth Hound]

i shall have to look out for her books, she obviously knows whatt she is on about

[justskint]

Hi all.

Silly ideas are sourced world wide, lot of cash spent on trips by MPs to help you Ungrateful people, all the best and tried ideas originate from the US!!

Doh