According to The Independent Online (16th October 2008) the UK government are making a veiled attempt to increase their stranglehold over the dubious rights and freedoms of the British individual.

This will not come as a surprise to most of us here living on the sceptic isle, we already hold the world record for the most CCTV cameras per capita. At current levels the number is estimated to be on average one close circuit television camera per 14 citizens. although I should point out we, the British are not entitled to that particular nom de plume, seeing as we are by law in fact subjects of the Queen, despite the government’s numerous failed attempts to abolish this outdated classification in the past. The fact that Labour have chosen to introduce a Citizen Test for prospective immigrants is by the by.

Due to the rising unpopularity of our unelected and dare I say it, coronated Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the recent humiliating climbdown by the leader and his cronies over the ludicrously undemocratic plans to hold terrorist suspects for up to 42 days without charge, we the British people maybe granted a stay of execution from a new Orwellian masterplan being instigated by Home Secretary Jaqui Smith.

It seems that even her own backbenchers are planning to revolt against a potential last nail in the coffin for British human rights. The government plans to intercept details of email, internet, telephone and other data records of every single person in Britain, it appears that we are all terrorists, and that the law of the land is now truly defunct. Guilty until proven innocent.

Unlike France and America Britain has not or no doubt ever will succumb to a heady clamber for revolution. From my school days I remember a few scant lessons on Guy Fawkes failed attempt in 1605 to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder, back then he was seen as a folklore hero, now I am sure the government  would rather we perceived him as a terrorist and an enemy of the state. In 1381 Wat Tyler also led a failed revolution, or rather a peasants revolt against the introduction of taxes to every subject over the age of 15. Everything went swimmingly until they reached London then all hell broke loose and most of his faithful followers, intoxicated byt the exuberant delights of the big city, lost themselves in a vast orgy of drink and debauchery.

Then again I did recently read an article at The Telegraph Online (22nd of September 2008, reporting that Euro MPs are preparing to vote on proposals for European Union regulation of blogs ,which essentially means that roughly 300 million of the planet’s inhabitants are on the verge of experiencing a taste of British justice. Who knows they might pass the law, I know that a few brave souls are fighting hard, but I have a feeling the British disease is spreading. Perhaps we can count on a European rising of the people in the future, at least it should break the monotony of nanny state governance for a short while. Before I hear a wail of protests about a lone British MEP fighting our corner, don’t bother, we have a habit of saying the right things but doing the wrong ones here, that’s politics for you, or rather that’s British politics.

We, the British do what we are told, that is our way, or at least it has been until now. I wonder how many more rights will be extricated from the body of the public, how much more the masses will persist in tolerating before our communal psyche will crack. I suspect far more than most other countries would ever tolerate.

We are doomed to do as we are told, be it fight wars we do not believe in, follow outdated and ill-thought rules and regulations that must at the very least bemuse those poor souls who wish to seek asylum or immigrant status in this country. We have no excuse, this isn’t fundamental religion at work, or fundamentalism of any description. The truth is we are too lazy and despondent to fight back. We have an unelected leader of our country, a man who’s begrudging government would rather have a ‘quiet life’ and wait for the pensions to roll in than rise against oppression. We are not a communist state, we are not a fascist nation, we don’t particularly believe in anything for that matter. We are a nation that reacts, we don’t proact.

Over 200,000 subjects of the Queen emigrate every year, many of them never to return. Most aspirational conversations I have had with British people conclude with the ambition and assumption that if one is wealthy enough one leaves. I cannot blame them, I cannot blame anyone for giving up, resistance is futile, as most sci-fi fans would say. We are our own worst enemy, no foreign aggressor could ever hope to achieve this level of oppression, we do it to ourselves and always have done.

My father, who lives in London, mentioned in passing a new and rather strange construction rising up through the metropolitan skyline, a black tower, a tall black tower with no significant markings or features to give even the tiniest hint to its purpose. I’ll tell you what it is, it’s an observation tower, a sophisticated and highly technological one, but an observation tower all the same. It is being built to keep an eye on you and me and every melancholic drone of this tattered state. We are prisoners and we dare not complain, perhaps we fear freedom, it takes effort and a great deal of thought to remain free. Which in all honesty would most likely sound like hard work to most of us, we enjoy our imprisonment the way a long-term mental patient enjoys the rituals of their hospitalisation. We have been institutionalised, and the institution is Great Britain, or as some would rather The United Kingdom, both of which have a ring of facetiousness about them.

Hold on… I think that may be the secret police at the door.

This post is tagged backbenchers, Britain, british people, CCTV, cctv cameras, circuit television, enemy of the state, Fascist, folklore hero, Guy Fawkes, human rights, jaqui smith, Labour, opression, Orwellian, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, prospective immigrants, revolution, rights, snoop, state, subjects of the queen, television camera, UK, unelected