Quote of the day, I think

[perlmonger]

From the comments to this:

I for one would happily support the imposition of stringent new restrictions on civil liberties, as long as they specified that any idiot who says “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear” was automatically locked up for the rest of their lives, on the grounds that their crushing stupidity represented a danger to public safety.

Rev. Stuart Campbell, Bath

[ heads up to blue_condition for pointing me at this latest descent into totalitarianism ]

Comments

[captainblue.livejournal.com]

{applause}

That's one of my pet hates.

I suppose, though, that it might counter my suggestion that I thought we had fought against the threat of hearing "Ihre papieren" in WW2.

And given that we are one of the most spied-upon countries of the world in terms of CCTV and other surveillance, isn't this 'son-of-sus' just a further chip away at our civil liberties? Especially since the present situation isn't exactly defeating the "war on terror" - I doubt very much whether anything short of confinement of the entire population will lead to any reduction in 'acts of terror' (except the state-sponsored ones).

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

I rather think that Virtual Imprisonment of everyone is pretty high up on Reid's list of Good Things. The universal surveillance society is the pretty much modern form of the C19 "panopticon" prison, isn't it?

[captainblue.livejournal.com]

Absolutely right: society being watched without being aware.