UK: Ministers Plan ‘Big Brother’ Police Powers
February 4th, 2007Via: Telegraph:
A swathe of controversial “Big Brother” style crime-fighting techniques are to be introduced by the Government under the cover of the 2012 London Olympics, a leaked memo has revealed.
The document, drawn up by officials at the Home Office and sent to 10 Downing Street, paves the way for a much wider use of the police’s DNA database to identify suspects through their relatives.
Police are also to be empowered to scan postal packages to find drugs and to monitor an individual’s progress in even greater detail than they can today, by using advances in CCTV technology as well as electronic travel passes such as the Oyster cards in use in London.
Definately off my list of places to visit in the future…. but guess what Kevin, You picked a land to live in that will eventually have those same police state plans implimented. NZ IS part of the British Empire… or at least under the umbrella of UK government.
Personally, I wouldn’t live in any country where my right to defend myself (ability to own weapons) is curtailed. No way in hell.
Tamryn,
The places with the most people are going to have the most trouble. Look at a map. See the thousands of miles of ocean that surround NZ? There’s your answer.
As for your NZ is part of the British Empire comments… HA The US and UK have much more profound ties than NZ and UK at this stage of the game. NZ’s connections to the US are much more troubling.
Re: Guns. I hate to burst your bubble, Tamryn, but most Kiwis [I know—clarification] are armed. (Always check your facts before making silly comments!)
Since you’re so liberty minded, where do you live?
“Since you’re so liberty minded, where do you live?”
Somewhere where it’s legal to own a semiauto pistol .45 ACP, and a competition grade semiauto .308 assult rifle 🙂 Guess it’s not in NZ.
“Since you’re so liberty minded, where do you live?”
Not being facetious.. but I thought you would know this with your apt knowledge of IP addys…..
>>Somewhere where it’s legal to own a semiauto pistol .45 ACP, and a competition grade semiauto .308 assult rifle 🙂 Guess it’s not in NZ.
After I show your comments about “the ability to own weapons” in NZ to be ridiculous, you’re back with another comment about the type of guns…
Ha. Well, you’re wrong again. You could legally own those weapons in New Zealand, if you wanted to deal with the red tape.
Besides, if guns are your main criteria for where you want to live, you’re not following your own line of rhetoric. Why don’t you move to Switzerland so you can own select fire assault rifles, not the girly semi-auto stuff available in the U.S.? HA
>>Not being facetious.. but I thought you would know this with your apt knowledge of IP addys…
Ahh, Grasshopper, just curious to see what you’d say. Besides, only an idiot would believe that the IP showing reveals the location of the user. Not being facetious, of course…
Hey Kevin, great blog and I’m of course a little bit flattered that you’ve chosen to move to NZ continuing in the footsteps of many othe great US dissenters.. but.. uhm.. “most Kiwis are armed” ? This is only true if by ‘most’ you actually mean about 5% of the population. (210,000 licensed shooters / 4,169,147 total pop – with stats from NZ Police force[1] and NZ Statistics[2] website respectively).
By the way, its interesting the extent to which ‘Liberal’ (capital L) has such a strong connection to gun loving only in the US. I guess people would put me in the box with the other liberals (little l) but its never seemed sensible to arm the population as a way to promote freedom. If the population of the US ever should ‘rise up’ against their schackels, all those gun totin’ citizens are only going to provide a very good reason to bring in the military.
History teaches us that people can perfectly satisifactorily rise up on mass and change an armed government without arms of their own – witness India and the British or the Soviet Block and the communists. In the modern context armed insurrection just plays into the hands of the fascists or pomo-fascists.
Keep up the great work, though.
Miles,
>>>>This is only true if by ‘most’ you actually mean about 5% of the population.
By “most” I meant most of the people I’ve met here in the Far North.
People can debate the role of guns all day, and make the case for any argument.
The right answer is that guns can play a role in securing freedom and preventing state atrocities. The right answer is also that an armed populace doesn’t guarantee freedom. Look at the U.S. And Iraqis under Saddam Hussein were allowed to own guns.
Guns aren’t necessarily the problem, or the solution.
Re: India: The British Empire collapsed under it’s own weight. British fascism was replaced by the familiar Indian fascism, known as the caste system. Take your pick.
Re: USSR: The USSR had been in a state of internal collapse for twenty years before the Berlin Wall came down.
There’s no touchy feely “consciousness” solution to tyranny any more than there is one via arms.
“I guess people would put me in the box with the other liberals (little l) but its never seemed sensible to arm the population as a way to promote freedom.”
There isn’t going to be any uprising in the US; my fellow citizens love their shackles. Anyway, any American foolish enough to take up arms against the US government will be quickly obliterated. I have guns to protect myself from my fellow Americans –including the new strain of Brownshirted serfs we’re cultivating.