The Land of Orwell: UK Gov’t Brings Surveillance Indoors
It’s bad enough that the UK seems hell-bent on placing surveillance cameras on every street corner, despite the fact that, according to a senior police official at Scotland Yard, they are an “utter fiasco.” But when the Orwellian UK government then mandates — secretly — that cameras spy on people in liquor stores and pubs, they have crossed the line.
From the Daily Mail:
Big Brother CCTV cameras are to be fitted inside shops and supermarkets on the orders of the state to keep track on anybody buying alcohol.
A law is being quietly pushed through Parliament giving councils the power to order licensed premises to fit the surveillance cameras. Pubs will also be covered.
The footage of people innocently buying a bottle of wine in a shop or a pint of beer in a bar must be stored for at least 60 days, and be handed over to the police on demand.
Such pretexts are designed solely to take power. The next excuse will be to put cameras in libraries and bookstores in order to ‘”prevent minors from being exposed to inappropriate materials.” The real effect will be to frighten people and coerce their choices. More from the Daily Mail:
Ministers have also been restricting the public’s right to ‘watch the watchers’.
Earlier this week, a law came into force which carries a maximum ten-year jail term for anybody taking a picture of a police officer if it is ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.
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Over the past dozen years in the UK, the Labour government has increasingly tightened its grip on the British people, rapidly eroding their civil liberties. There was a time when “liberal” meant “free” or “less restricted.” Like in the US, that time has past. Make no mistake: this isn’t about Left vs. Right, nor Liberal vs. Conservative anymore. It’s about totalitarianism, and it’s in the land of Parliamentary government and the Magna Carta.
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