Where is this all coming from? 1984, CCTV, Police State? O_O

[Yootopia]

Unfortunately the notions of 'nanny state' and 'NHS' are inseparable.

Only by idiots.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

If you mean Britain, then it comes from the mass government databases, the fact that they then exclude themselves from those databases, the masses of CCTV, and the encroachment of government into our daily lives (see TV adverts telling you to Change 4 Life, that it's utterly idiotic to give up cigarettes without government help, to wear a condom, not to eat more than your recommended government allowance of 6g of salt each day, etc).

Yes those 'nanny state' adverts are quite annoying.
Though something does need to be done about peoples health, where better to put in, then adverts on T.V?

Health promotion adverts are now considered the action of a Nanny state?

They're not forcing you to wear a condom, stop smoking or give up salt. Until they do it's not nanny state.

Yes. They are TELLING you to do things.
That is sometimes considered an action of a nanny state.

They're advising you to do something which you have the right to refuse. Hardly nanny state.

What about banning conkers...?
And making them only play it with goggles?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_3712000/3712502.stm

[Woolio]

If you mean Britain, then it comes from the mass government databases, the fact that they then exclude themselves from those databases, the masses of CCTV, and the encroachment of government into our daily lives (see TV adverts telling you to Change 4 Life, that it's utterly idiotic to give up cigarettes without government help, to wear a condom, not to eat more than your recommended government allowance of 6g of salt each day, etc).

Yes those 'nanny state' adverts are quite annoying.
Though something does need to be done about peoples health, where better to put in, then adverts on T.V?

Health promotion adverts are now considered the action of a Nanny state?

They're not forcing you to wear a condom, stop smoking or give up salt. Until they do it's not nanny state.

Yes. They are TELLING you to do things.
That is sometimes considered an action of a nanny state.

They're advising you to do something which you have the right to refuse. Hardly nanny state.

What about banning conkers...?
And making them only play it with goggles?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_3712000/3712502.stm

That was nothing to do with Health and Safety officers. It was everything to do with one paranoid head teacher.

Try again

[GetBert]

I was under the impression that the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia worked together to spy on our emails, mobile phone calls, internet use etc..

Now I am assuming that this group of nations are not just monitoring the UK. It isn't just about speed cameras and cameras watching drunks in city centres.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

I was under the impression that the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia worked together to spy on our emails, mobile phone calls, internet use etc..

Now I am assuming that this group of nations are not just monitoring the UK. It isn't just about speed cameras and cameras watching drunks in city centres.

Are you sure Barack Obama (The Dark Lord Satan, born in the deepest jungles of Iraq, raised by Ebil Cuban communists) doesn't have something to do with this?

[Carlitonia]

Of course he does, along with the Lizard King Ronald Reagan

[EvilDarkMagicians]

Of course he does, along with the Lizard King Ronald Reagan

Found him

[GetBert]

Are you sure Barack Obama (The Dark Lord Satan, born in the deepest jungles of Iraq, raised by Ebil Cuban communists) doesn't have something to do with this?

I am sure, because Echelon has been around since the 1960s.

[Angleter]

Unfortunately the notions of 'nanny state' and 'NHS' are inseparable.

Only by idiots.

With an NHS, the government becomes the sole provider of healthcare, and thus it is in their interests to promote the lifestyle that shall keep the doctor away and thus keep the NHS's budget down. REMEMBER: An apple a day lowers one's burden on the National Health Service! Hence an NHS is always accompanied by a nanny state.

Without the NHS, creating a nanny state is no business of the government since it has nothing to gain and a lot of advertising agency payments to lose. Hence a nanny state is always accompanied by an NHS.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

.

[Manango]

With an NHS, the government becomes the sole provider of healthcare,

Ahh of course. I forgot that BUPA was government owned

[EvilDarkMagicians]

With an NHS, the government becomes the sole provider of healthcare,

Ahh of course. I forgot that BUPA was government owned

Though the NHS is the sole provider of healthcare.

[Angleter]

With an NHS, the government becomes the sole provider of healthcare,

Ahh of course. I forgot that BUPA was government owned

92% of the population of England do not frequent public healthcare at all, and there are only two private A&Es in the whole country (owned by the same company). Also, even if one has BUPA health insurance, they are still paying towards the NHS. Private healthcare exists, but it is incredibly small as an industry.

[Manango]

With an NHS, the government becomes the sole provider of healthcare,

Ahh of course. I forgot that BUPA was government owned

92% of the population of England do not frequent public healthcare at all, and there are only two private A&Es in the whole country (owned by the same company). Also, even if one has BUPA health insurance, they are still paying towards the NHS. Private healthcare exists, but it is incredibly small as an industry.

Ahh well, as long as the opportunity to go private exists. We are meant to be capitalists after all.

The problem is not the NHS, which should just provide healthcare, it is the interest groups and think tanks who persuade the government that it is its duty to take preventative measures rather than just heal the sick. Not only that, the general public expects the government to take preventative measures, or at least endorse them.

The real crux of the problem is just that we can not say no, and when posed with a problem, we expect the government to fix it, no matter how small.

[Tubbsalot]

The problem is not the NHS, which should just provide healthcare, it is the interest groups and think tanks who persuade the government that it is its duty to take preventative measures rather than just heal the sick.

Yes. Why bother preventing obesity in the first place, when we can just give everyone obscenely expensive heart transplants and quadruple bypasses.

You nanny-state alarmists are a bunch of crackpots... goodness, the government is providing affordable healthcare for all and reminding us to eat healthy! THIS IS AN UNACCEPTABLE INTRUSION INTO THE RIGHTS OF THE POPULACE ARGHGAHGRHAGHGASDKHLASD

And honestly, the cameras are a bit odd (and I suspect highly ineffective) but it's not like your bedroom is bristling with cameras. I don't see the big deal. Is it somehow worse when people see you through a camera rather than in person?

[Charlotte Ryberg]

The principle of the nanny state comes into my mind with those 6g salt limits and giving up smoking ads. I shudder to think about advertising suited to a person's traits because that would be the end of privacy.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

The problem is not the NHS, which should just provide healthcare, it is the interest groups and think tanks who persuade the government that it is its duty to take preventative measures rather than just heal the sick.

Yes. Why bother preventing obesity in the first place, when we can just give everyone obscenely expensive heart transplants and quadruple bypasses.

You nanny-state alarmists are a bunch of crackpots... goodness, the government is providing affordable healthcare for all and reminding us to eat healthy! THIS IS AN UNACCEPTABLE INTRUSION INTO THE RIGHTS OF THE POPULACE ARGHGAHGRHAGHGASDKHLASD

And honestly, the cameras are a bit odd (and I suspect highly ineffective) but it's not like your bedroom is bristling with cameras. I don't see the big deal. Is it somehow worse when people see you through a camera rather than in person?

The cameras do work for there main purpose which is 'to record crimes and to gain more evidence'.
Thank you for providing me your opinion about the nanny-state alarmists, I found it most intriguing.
Though they do have this one advert (about breakfast cereal) saying that the U.K is too nanny-state
so that may be reinforcing the idea.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

The principle of the nanny state comes into my mind with those 6g salt limits and giving up smoking ads. I shudder to think about advertising suited to a person's traits because that would be the end of privacy.

Lol, why?

[Alsatian Knights]

The key to an effective police state is to cause your citizens to be unable to distinguish the goals the state has for them from the goals they have for themselves. Thus the citizens believe they have independent thought and freedom to action because they have no desire or don't even consider actions outside of what the state desires them to do.

In this way the police state disguises itself as a free functioning democracy. It is unlikely you would realize it if you were living in such a state...

Sounds alot like the United States...

[Grave_n_idle]

With an NHS, the government becomes the sole provider of healthcare,

Ahh of course. I forgot that BUPA was government owned

92% of the population of England do not frequent public healthcare at all, and there are only two private A&Es in the whole country (owned by the same company). Also, even if one has BUPA health insurance, they are still paying towards the NHS. Private healthcare exists, but it is incredibly small as an industry.

So... what you're saying is 'the government becomes the sole provider of healthcare' wasn't actually true?

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

[EvilDarkMagicians]

The key to an effective police state is to cause your citizens to be unable to distinguish the goals the state has for them from the goals they have for themselves. Thus the citizens believe they have independent thought and freedom to action because they have no desire or don't even consider actions outside of what the state desires them to do.

In this way the police state disguises itself as a free functioning democracy. It is unlikely you would realize it if you were living in such a state...

Sounds alot like the United States...

Lolwut?

[Grave_n_idle]

I heard people mention time and time again that the U.K is:

Slowly slipping into a police state.

Being watched by CCTV all the time

and

Becoming like what George Orwell predicted for 1984

Why do people hold these opinions?
Why do you hold them, what is happening that I am so oblivious to?
Explain.

The answer is easy, but there is a troubling ramification.

Brits LOVE to complain. Oh god, we grumble from morning to night... but we don't mean it.

When we mean it, it gets really obvious, really fast, and the Poll Tax gets dropped (or whatever it might happen to be).

The 'troubling ramification' is that some people have started attaching some significance to it, now that we live in a worldwide media age. There is none. It's just bellyaching.

[Manango]

The problem is not the NHS, which should just provide healthcare, it is the interest groups and think tanks who persuade the government that it is its duty to take preventative measures rather than just heal the sick.

Yes. Why bother preventing obesity in the first place, when we can just give everyone obscenely expensive heart transplants and quadruple bypasses.

You nanny-state alarmists are a bunch of crackpots... goodness, the government is providing affordable healthcare for all and reminding us to eat healthy! THIS IS AN UNACCEPTABLE INTRUSION INTO THE RIGHTS OF THE POPULACE ARGHGAHGRHAGHGASDKHLASD

And honestly, the cameras are a bit odd (and I suspect highly ineffective) but it's not like your bedroom is bristling with cameras. I don't see the big deal. Is it somehow worse when people see you through a camera rather than in person?

The cameras are fine. It is stuff like this that irks me.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

I heard people mention time and time again that the U.K is:

Slowly slipping into a police state.

Being watched by CCTV all the time

and

Becoming like what George Orwell predicted for 1984

Why do people hold these opinions?
Why do you hold them, what is happening that I am so oblivious to?
Explain.

The answer is easy, but there is a troubling ramification.

Brits LOVE to complain. Oh god, we grumble from morning to night... but we don't mean it.

When we mean it, it gets really obvious, really fast, and the Poll Tax gets dropped (or whatever it might happen to be).

The 'troubling ramification' is that some people have started attaching some significance to it, now that we live in a worldwide media age. There is none. It's just bellyaching.

And when people actually start believing the media hype, then it become tedious.
For teenagers it's the worst, most people would like to believe I'm a knife welding hoody.

[Woolio]

The problem is not the NHS, which should just provide healthcare, it is the interest groups and think tanks who persuade the government that it is its duty to take preventative measures rather than just heal the sick.

Yes. Why bother preventing obesity in the first place, when we can just give everyone obscenely expensive heart transplants and quadruple bypasses.

You nanny-state alarmists are a bunch of crackpots... goodness, the government is providing affordable healthcare for all and reminding us to eat healthy! THIS IS AN UNACCEPTABLE INTRUSION INTO THE RIGHTS OF THE POPULACE ARGHGAHGRHAGHGASDKHLASD

And honestly, the cameras are a bit odd (and I suspect highly ineffective) but it's not like your bedroom is bristling with cameras. I don't see the big deal. Is it somehow worse when people see you through a camera rather than in person?

The cameras are fine. It is stuff like this that irks me.

I don't see the problem