A Political Rant
Written at 12:42 p.m. on 2006-11-16
Political Rant
Today I am going to have a political rant. Usually my rants are about slightly less, erm, influential, things such as folk who have annoyed me. So I suppose in that respect this isn�t much different to normal!
Last week the head of MI5 announced that the terrorism threat in Britain is the highest that it has ever been, that they have foiled dozens of plots to blow up major cities and are tracking about 300 terrorists. I said to Micah at the time, I bet you a fiver that within 2 weeks the government announce some other hideous draconian piece of legislation designed to combat the �Unprecedented Terror Threat�. He informed me I was paranoid. So I sat down and had a think and decided that at 27 I was really far too young to be so cynical and I probably was paranoid as a result of being brought up in a household with a former political activist. So yesterday we have �The Queen�s Speech�, announcing the government�s prorities. High on the list � the pushing through of ID cards, the resurrection of the attempt to get a bill through that allows the detention of �terror suspects� for 90 days without charge (90 days? That�s 3 bloody months) and more huffing about trials without jury for terror suspects. This country has centuries old civil rights and liberties, one of which is �innocent until proven guilty� which Teflon Tony Blair and his Ministers for Fear are doing their utmost to overturn. I am absolutely certain that they are exaggerating the danger to gain control and frankly I find that worrying. And I am NOT carrying some crap ID card either. How the hell do they suppose that�s going to stop terrorism? What, are Al Quaeda members going to write �International terrorist and supporter of Jihad� in the occupation box? I don�t really think so. The government are using many of the same arguments that Hitler used against the Jews against Muslims and immigrants and no sane person should support them. It�s no bloody wonder the BNP and other racist lunatics are gaining support.
Other champion ideas brought about and mentioned yesterday also seem to have originated in the Ministry for Crap Suggestions. One of my personal favourites is the �Charge per mile� scheme which if implemented in Manchester will set me back the princely sum of �3000 per year merely to commute to work. This is before I�ve paid my car tax, fuel costs, car insurance, maintenance. The government are suggesting a tracker device be put into cars so that the department given the task can tell exactly where your car has been in a day, which roads it has driven down, and can charge you accordingly. There really isn�t anywhere sacred anymore. They want to tag your car to see where it goes (and I tell you this, I will see the car crushed into something the size of a Rubiks Cube before I'll allow it to be tagged), they are giving council worker power to enter your house to poke around and see what fixtures and fittings you have so they can charge you more council tax, the next census is rumoured to be asking you your income and how many times a week your partner sleeps in your house and the ID cards are going to be holding large amounts of information and alarmingly are going to be able to be sold to companies (seriously, I�ve read the Bill). The Civil Contingencies Bill which was sneaked through last year contains things such as the government has the right in a national emergency (national emergency to be defined by the government) to pass through new laws without presenting them to parliament for debate. How is that democracy? How can Blair claim to be bringing democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq when he�s removing it wholesale from Britain.
I could go on all week about how sinister I find our government but to be honest I�ve got to get some work done as I have council tax, income tax, national insurance, fuel duty, car tax and VAT to pay so I need to get some money earned.
Still, since I have put an anti-government rant online there is probably a harassed looking civil servant in a dusty office somewhere writing my name on a file so at least I�ve given someone else something to do although I suppose that having bad thoughts about the government is not illegal. Yet.
