Law Abiding Subversion

Apparently it's not enough just to obey the law anymore.  Whilst you might have thought that being a law-abiding citizen was enough to make you safe from the state and its agents from curbing your liberties, Dave has decided - on the back of his 37% of the popular vote landslide election victory - that the British state faces such severe, yet vaguely defined, threats that it is necessary to restrict freedom in order to protect freedom.  Don't say I didn't warn you that we were on a downward slide to repression under these Tory bastards.  So complain to me - you voted for them.  Well, at least 37% of you did.  With every day which goes by, the need for revolution becomes ever more urgent - it's clear that the violent overthrow of this right-wing dictatorship is the only way to preserve our freedoms.  Now, having said that, will I find myself arrested and banned from the web?  Because, as I understand it, one of the legal things you can do now which won't be tolerated is expressing an opinion.  An opinion that Dave or Theresa May or some other fascist doesn't like.  More specifically, they want to ban people from expressing views that might be 'anti-democracy'.  So, as I've just called for the overthrow of a 'democratically' elected government, can I expect to get the 'knock on the door in the night?'

But to be slightly more serious, this country has been sleep walking toward repression for decades now.  Not just under the Tories, but under Blair's New Labour as well, there has been a progressive erosion of our liberties in the name of 'protecting' us from various supposed 'threats'.  But the real threat lies with our own governments who seek ever greater levels of control over all aspects of our lives.  I find it bizarre that this Tory government wants to scrap the Human Rights Act because it sees it as an obstacle to restricting our liberties - the Blair government introduced the Act, yet still increased surveillance levels and tried to bring in things like ID cards.  All in the name of saving us from those terrorists.  But what really disturbs is the quiescence of the British public in the face of these onslaughts on their liberties.  Nobody seems to care.  Can people really have been so brainwashed by the right-wing press that they actually now believe that that human rights aren't essential to their continued liberty?  It seems to me that people these days are more interested in  materialism than liberty.  Just look at that the civil unrest which accompanied the Blair government's increases in fuel duty - people were blockading oil refineries whilst the police stood by and did nothing.  Yet, when, around the same time, the government introduced the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which increased the scope of official surveillance of individuals, not to mention the number of bodies which could covertly spy on you, nobody went out onto the streets and rioted.  Really, what's wrong with people?  Well, I've got to go now and warm up the tank ready for the assault on Downing Street...