Blah Blah Flowers

Blair looks to restrict real liberties to combat imaginary fears. Well, that will be what it comes down to, again . After all, how can you fight something that exists nowhere except in the minds of the public? You could spend divert money away from public services to embark on a massive program of going round the country convincing people that while a woman was stabbed millions of people weren't, that while some people don't get treated on the NHS thousands do. At the same time you're fighting a right-wing media who distort the news to make the world we live in seem a frightening place and public confidence in you is low as they know that you lied about the dangers of Saddam Hussein's regime in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. It is much easier and cheaper to go along with the consensus that everything is a mess, despite the fact you can show the figures to prove that crime has gone down while you've been in charge (though Steven D. Levitt might be able to offer some alternative reasons for why that is). It's also handy because it allows you to push your authoritarian message? Scared of crime? Support ID Cards! What will ID Cards do to- Scared of crime? Support the police DNA database of everyone in the UK! What, even those who get pulled in by chance by the pol- Scared of crime? Support ASBOs against teenagers! Don't you risk criminalising an entire age rang- Scared of crime? Support your government removing people's ability to defend themselves in court, removing judges ability to strike down bad and knee-jerk legislation! Isn't our society built on a belief in people's right to a fair tria- My wildly uninformed guess would be some sort of battle to remove all restrictions on how long anybody the police arrests can be held without charge or access to legal council, because otherwise the terrorists win! The Government is quite happy to peddle the Big Lie about people giving up their freedoms in order to protect them. As though you only appreciate things when they are in a museum case as a totem from the past rather than something that you own now.