Anarchy in the UK!
There's a lot to like here:
"end of the controversial ID cards scheme, the scrapping of universal DNA databases"
"use of CCTV cameras will also be reviewed."
"close down the ContactPoint children’s database."
"schools will not be able to take a child’s fingerprint without parental permission."
"ministers will review libel laws, while limits on peaceful protest will be removed."
"we’ll do something no government ever has: We will ask you which laws you think should go."
“Obsessive law-making simply makes criminals out of ordinary people."
"end the storage of internet and email regulations and email records without good reason."
“It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding people are regularly treated as if they have something to hide. It has to stop.
“This will be a government that is proud when British citizens stand up against illegitimate advances of the state. That values debate, that is unafraid of dissent.”
So. When do we give up our sovereignty and go back to the Crown?
Well, it's not all great big fluffy pancakes filled with blueberries and topped with buttery syrup.
But dismantling a security and fortress mentality and replacing it with a civil society doesn't sound like such a bad idea, one we should probably look into. Especially given that we're busy constructing more security apparatus and stripping away more rights and making more criminal penalties and laws for consensual or other non-threatening activity.
If an unspoken progressive idea is to "make us more like Europe", then one way to accomplish that is to have Europe move toward us politically. Like this by abandoning strict controls in favour of decentralisation or totally surrendering some cultural and social aspects from government control and monitoring. There are a lot of favourable things on social and cultural aspects in Europe, tolerance or equality for homosexuals for example, not to mention the history and food and art and music is usually pretty good, but it comes with some nasty baggage like the above programs that are now going to face a mean axe (and unspoken up there is the Tory/Cameron plan to decentralise their educational system and make it more like Sweden's, where money follows students).
I'm at least cautiously wondering what a world where Europe looks more and more like a bastion of a classically liberal freedom would be like.
21 May 2010
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5 comments:
Let's see where this goes...
If they follow through, I may seriously consider attempting immigration.
They would have to go pretty far, but every power grab our government makes reduces that gap.
They still have that NHS business and they're keeping a lot of those CCTVs up and running still, but it's an ambitious plan to restore a lot of social and civic freedom (and participation). Sometimes it's curious what happens when you have a multi-party system.
After Italy the UK would be next on my list of places to check out in person. Haven't been able to finagle that unbelievably overnight layover in London...yet. Bwaahahah.
Waiting until Berlusconi gets kicked out?
Uh, waiting for my independent wealthiness to kick in, I guess. Either that, or for my dad to retire and my mom to get her way! ;-D
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