You scared? The UK Government wants you to be.

[Maineiacs]

Yeah, they just make sure one in five children are born into poverty and sell weapons to terrorists.

I thought Tories were just British conservatives.

And I always thought they weren't nearly as bad as our conservatives. Apparently, they're catching up.

[Infected Mushroom]

I thought Tories were just British conservatives.

They are, but since they've been in power, Scotland has a 1 in 5 child poverty rate and they authorized the selling of arms to the F.S.A. in Syria. Which they have since suspended.

I see...

[Lenciland]

I thought Tories were just British conservatives.

They are, but since they've been in power, Scotland has a 1 in 5 child poverty rate and they authorized the selling of arms to the F.S.A. in Syria. Which they have since suspended.

They also removed speeches from their website by politicians pledging to spend the same as the Labour Party and hold politicians accountable. V is for Vendetta is closer than ever!

[Kapilana]

The UK government is full of shitbergs lately.

If by lately you mean 'for the last four years' then sure.

The UK government is full of shitbergs and the UK population is full of dumb and completely docile cattle. Can't have one without the other.

[Ostroeuropa]

If by lately you mean 'for the last four years' then sure.

The UK government is full of shitbergs and the UK population is full of dumb and completely docile cattle. Can't have one without the other.

Sure you can. You just need an extremely outdated electoral system and a corporatized right wing media.
Most Brits are just exasperated.

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

If by lately you mean 'for the last four years' then sure.

The UK government is full of shitbergs and the UK population is full of dumb and completely docile cattle. Can't have one without the other.

I'm offensive and I find this British.

Even as someone from Britbong, I can agree that this is the case for a large section of the populace. At least, when it comes to politics that is. We have a lot of smart cookies, but as soon as it comes to politics - we do become docile cattle.

[Ostroeuropa]

The UK government is full of shitbergs and the UK population is full of dumb and completely docile cattle. Can't have one without the other.

I'm offensive and I find this British.

Even as someone from Britbong, I can agree that this is the case for a large section of the populace. At least, when it comes to politics that is. We have a lot of smart cookies, but as soon as it comes to politics - we do become docile cattle.

Britain is a country full of communists, socialists, christian fundamentalists, and fascists.

Whenever we discuss getting rid of the bunch of ultra-capitalist authoritarians we have in charge, we all nod in agreement with eachother.
Then we discuss what to replace them with, and stare in horror at eachother.
And then we vote for the devil we know to make sure our neighbours are never, ever in charge.

[Imperializt Russia]

They are, but since they've been in power, Scotland has a 1 in 5 child poverty rate and they authorized the selling of arms to the F.S.A. in Syria. Which they have since suspended.

They also removed speeches from their website by politicians pledging to spend the same as the Labour Party and hold politicians accountable. V is for Vendetta is closer than ever!

I am positive that web.archive (http://archive.org/web/web.php) had actually saved the data, rendering the move symbolic at best - though did do a lovely job of highlighting it.

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

I'm offensive and I find this British.

Even as someone from Britbong, I can agree that this is the case for a large section of the populace. At least, when it comes to politics that is. We have a lot of smart cookies, but as soon as it comes to politics - we do become docile cattle.

Britain is a country full of communists, socialists, christian fundamentalists, and fascists.

Whenever we discuss getting rid of the bunch of ultra-capitalist authoritarians we have in charge, we all nod in agreement with eachother.
Then we discuss what to replace them with, and stare in horror at eachother.
And then we vote for the devil we know to make sure our neighbours are never, ever in charge.

It doesn't help that to make a political party and to run in an election you need something like a £2,000 starting fee and then £500 per constituency, making it impossible for anyone who isn't mega-rich to get into politics. One or two independent candidates isn't enough in British Politics because all they get is a shitty little seat they can't do anything from because they're outnumbered around 300:1.

[Kapilana]

The UK government is full of shitbergs and the UK population is full of dumb and completely docile cattle. Can't have one without the other.

Sure you can. You just need an extremely outdated electoral system and a corporatized right wing media.
Most Brits are just exasperated.

I think it goes much deeper than that. Almost every country has a corporatised media, and it doesn't affect things much. However, even the most disadvantaged UK citizen still has a deep faith in the system and there have been no revolutions of any sort in recent British history. In any other country, the fabric of the nation would have been turned inside out many, many times over by now, with a series of coups d'etat and revolutions. But in the UK, no matter what happens to them, people have such faith in the system they would die to defend it! They may moan about it being undemocratic in the Guardian, or shout slogans at a march before being beaten up by the police, but nobody is actively trying to subvert it. In other countries, they would see the parliament building and walk inside it. It would take the likes of a Saddam Hussein to stop them.

[Ostroeuropa]

Sure you can. You just need an extremely outdated electoral system and a corporatized right wing media.
Most Brits are just exasperated.

I think it goes much deeper than that. Almost every country has a corporatised media, and it doesn't affect things much. However, even the most disadvantaged UK citizen still has a deep faith in the system and there have been no revolutions of any sort in recent British history. In any other country, the fabric of the nation would have been turned inside out many, many times over by now, with a series of coups d'etat and revolutions. But in the UK, no matter what happens to them, people have such faith in the system they would die to defend it! They may moan about it being undemocratic in the Guardian, or shout slogans at a march before being beaten up by the police, but nobody is actively trying to subvert it. In other countries, they would see the parliament building and walk inside it. It would take the likes of a Saddam Hussein to stop them.

It's more that we characterize our revolutions as the proper authority returning to it's rightful place.
We've had more revolutions than the USA has.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution

The glorious revolution being perhaps the most definitive and final.

[Russian Socialist Soviet States]

Orwell would be sad to see his country be like this now.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

"Give me privacy or make me vanish." <-- The sternly worded ultimatum that I tweeted to Cameron today.

I see a good reason for the EU. If Britain leaves the EU, I will leave Britain.

Additionally, I do not have to use the Internet.

I'd seriously consider it too.
I imagine a small exodus might occur, probably to Germany.
Because Germany is a pretty cool country that doesn't afraid of anything.

I apologise from posting from the wrong account by accident, but I do not have to live in the UK if such intrusion of privacy outweighs the benefits of same sex marriage.

In fact, such measures like this is enticing people into extremism and radicalism, because of the apathy that this proposal is creating. This, combined with the living wage crisis and the austerity measures, could entice people to think " you know what, only a brutal and violent revolution will end this and it will be worth it".

I never thought it would come to this, but I have fears of people starting to support Al-Qaeda in protest of government policy, particularly with the people who are going to Syria and siding with the Fundamental Islamists. That will definitely end in tears, if Cameron and Clegg do not get the gist of what is really going on.

[Priory Academy USSR]

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Are you sure you want to phrase it that way? Because that's way too easy. Doncha wanna put a "British" qualifier in there?

What do you mean?

Interesting fact of the day, Tories (the term, not the party) were originally Irish terrorists/freedom fighters who may well have bombed innocent civilians.

[Infected Mushroom]

What do you mean?

Interesting fact of the day, Tories (the term, not the party) were originally Irish terrorists/freedom fighters who may well have bombed innocent civilians.

I see...

I did not know this

[Gauthier]

Maybe they want this passed just to get an excuse to hire the entire News of the World staff to government.

[Ifreann]

Orwell would be sad to see his country be like this now.

I seem to recall reading somewhere, possibly Cracked, that Orwell regularly informed the British government about people he believed to be communists.

[-Alpine-]

Yeah it's against our rights. Like seriously against our rights. But remember this has been happening for a while. The NSA is watching us, listening to our conversations. It's not just the UK.
But anyhow, I don't care really. All they'll find on my phone is inappropriate pictures. LOL.

[Ziegenhain]

I approve of this.

[Blakk Metal]

Be elated UKIP, the UK might be leaving the EU soon.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

Yeah it's against our rights. Like seriously against our rights. But remember this has been happening for a while. The NSA is watching us, listening to our conversations. It's not just the UK.
But anyhow, I don't care really. All they'll find on my phone is inappropriate pictures. LOL.

As it stands, I feel that the rise of sympathy towards extremism is moderately connected to the spying scandal. Vile YouTube comments, rise in crime and suicides, neo-nazism, you name it.

If it continues it will end in tears. Failure to pay more attention towards protecting civil rights at times like this is a recipe for disaster at a grand scale.

[Kapilana]

Orwell would be sad to see his country be like this now.

I seem to recall reading somewhere, possibly Cracked, that Orwell regularly informed the British government about people he believed to be communists.

This seems to be true. However if Nationstates is an RPG, the East vs West charade is only a bigger one, played by elites on both sides, much like religion. Blair and all his cronies and friends in the last government each had a file on them as actual or potential 'subversives' by the Security Service. Only the little people are affected by the problems caused by Communism, Islamic extremism and similar ideologies. Every time someone is assaulted by a gang of Islamic extremists on the street, it actually helps the control and surveillance agenda along. The active players in competing ideologies are often friends, reading from the same 'greater good'/'order out of chaos' hymn book. The real action is where the money flows. Reporting stuff or people to the authorities will result in being ignored or the target being recruited or rewarded in some way. It's not hard to find actual terrorists in the UK, for example. Try reporting them and see what happens.

[Sjovenia]

Emergency phone and internet data laws to be passed

Emergency powers to ensure police and security services can continue to access phone and internet records are being rushed through Parliament.

Prime Minister David Cameron has secured the backing of all three main parties for the highly unusual move.

He said urgent action was needed to protect the public from "criminals and terrorists" after the European Court of Justice struck down existing powers.

But civil liberties campaigners have warned it will invade people's privacy.

Mr Cameron defended the move in a joint news conference with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, saying it was about maintaining existing capabilities - not introducing new snooping laws.

But he also said he had reached an agreement with Labour leader Ed Miliband for a wider review of the surveillance powers needed by the security services, to report after the next election.

More info and full story here

In short, the UK government has been told that its current laws are unacceptable. So it's going to just redraft them and then go for the same thing again, but reinforcing the legitimacy of these tactics in the new law itself, Because Terrorism. This is not only a fuck you to the public, it's a fuck you to the CJEU, which is there to protect citizens' rights across Europe. Expect this to keep happening.

What to do about this, as a citizen? I have no idea. My opinion is "fuck em", but that isn't productive in and of itself.

You got spying opinions? Go on ahead.

Is the the UK even a part of the EU? Isn't one of the requirements for the EU consist of adapting to Euros?

[-Arabiyah-]

I could care less I'm a Muslim and I am pretty religious I'll admit I'm Radical and I watch Jihad Nasheeds(Muslim Music) on YouTube and training videos and I love them and there is no law against and I'm not hurting any one either. So unless if I did carry out an attack there should be no reason to be afraid.

[Stormaen]

The UK government is full of shitbergs lately.
It's no suprise they want to monitor the population, I expect they know that if citizens could get away with it they'd already be conspiring in revolution.

Nah, most are too apathetic.

But on the main issue, this really annoys the living shit out of me. I'm not a terrorist, I'm not a seditionist and I'm not a pervert: I do not need the government to monitor everything I do in order to prove the fact I'm not those things.

Fucking dimwits. This is what happens when you give power to those hungry for it. They will invent laws for you to break and the second you do they're all over it. If you're a civilised member of society and tolerate this kind of shit, it'll be you who's targeted with a new law next.

Joseph de Maistre once said, "In a democracy, people get the government they deserve." Apathy welcomes unaccountable government.