Scare Tactics

Apparently, "adhering to British values is not an option or a choice.  It is a duty for all those who live in these islands".  Is it just me, or do the pronouncements of our political leaders, particularly David Cameron, sound more fascistic with every day that goes by?  Really, this latest utterance could have come straight from the lips of Adolf Hitler in 1938.  What are these 'values' we all have to adhere to in our daily lives?  Who defines them?  David Cameron?  Conservative Party Central Office?  Rupert Murdoch? The Daily Mail?  We just don't know.  Equally poorly defined is this current terrorist threat which has caused the Home Secretary to raise the Terror Alert level to 'Pink Oboe' or whatever the fuck scale they use.  As far as I can see, it has something to do with British citizens leaving the UK to go and fight in Syria and Iraq.  They might become radicalized and try to come back here and start their Jihadi nonsense on the streets of Pimlico, or wherever.  I would have thought that if they were going to places like Syria and Iraq to join ISIS, then they are already radicalised and we're probably best rid of them.  As for the threat they might hypothetically pose if and when they return to the UK, bearing in mind the propensity for these guys to volunteer for suicide bomber duty, the chances of their return is pretty slim.

In reality, of course, this latest terror scaremongering and the accompanying political posturing and proposals for yet more oppressive legislation to curb everyone's civil liberties, has less to do with terrorism than it has with the fact that there's a general election due in less than a year.  As Josef Goebbels noted, keeping people scared is the key to controlling them.  If you can convince someone that there's an immediate threat to their lives and only you can protect them, then you can get them to agree to just about any kind of 'protective' measures on your part.  And when they don't die because you locked them in an iron box for their own protection, they'll be so grateful that they'll do anything for you.  Even vote for you.  If you can't buy people's votes with tax cuts, then the next best strategy is to scare them into giving you their vote.  Or maybe I'm just being cynical, but I don't think so - I don't think that there are any depths Cameron and his cohorts won't stoop to in order to cling to power, (and all the profits they and their friends can cream off from it in terms of sell-offs, out sourcing of services and state subsidies).  Roll on the revolution.