Keep Calm and Carry On

It would appear that those of us that worry about our liberties being eroded are not paranoid. No less a person than Dame Stella Riddington, the former head of MI5, has said in an interview with a Spanish newspaper that “It would be better that the Government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties" , see here.
Whilst we wait for the political consensus to swing back to our way of thinking we could do worse than encourage politicians to follow the edict illustrated on this wartime poster. It would seem from the article that even in the second world war politicians did not have the courage of their apparent convictions since they pulped the entire print run although Mr. Manley, the owner of the poster, is more generous because he believes that "It was never distributed because things never got bad enough." Since Mr. Manley has decided to reproduce it on mugs, T-shirts, mouse mats, tea towels, postcards and a facsimile poster, available from here, I suggest we buy copies and encourage others to do the same. At worst it will make us feel better and at best the sentiment might catch on.

Where are the howls of indignation?

A further erosion in our civil liberties takes place today as new counter-terrorism laws come into effect. Under the new Counter-Terrorism Act it is an offence to take pictures of officers "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism." We all know that that now means that we can never take pictures of the police. Not a big deal you might think but why the hell can we not take pictures of the police? The are our servants. Have you heard of an atrocity that has occurred because pictures of the police were taken? No, neither have I.
I despair of this country.