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UK Government Plans 10-Year Database of Citizens' Travel
moderators_are_w*nke writes "The UK government is planning yet another database to track its citizens, this time keeping track of their movements in and out of the country for ten years. Just like all their other databases, this one 'is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and [of course] terrorism.'" I'd be very surprised if the US is not already doing this, and just not making a point to let anyone know.
They need to concentrate on the non-citizens who are coming into the country, not the citizens who are traveling abroad. Just last week there were strikes because too many people are coming into the UK. The UK is already overcrowded and the government seems to be able to do very little to control the borders effectively. Allowing Workers to freely migrate within the EU was a big mistake and will drive wages down.
You got suckered. See, the trick here is to claim that location X is far worse than where-ever you are, so you shouldn't complain. While you're muttering on about the logical fallacy they're over there laughing that you actually believed have even left their home town. Zimbabwe is no more a "police state" than anywhere else. In many ways the people of Zimbabwe are more free than the people of China.. they're just poorer.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Please don't try to make this a left-right issue; the Tories only ever oppose such plans to gain political traction. Much of the mentality of New Labour is inherited from their ideological forebearers in the Tory party.
The fact that a bunch of old trots and stalinists could so easily switch over to thatcherism to me shows a fundamental similarity; the cynical treatment of man as an economic machine, a belief in political and economic rationalism to the point of total dehumanisation, and a utopian vision that is used to justify any short-term oppression or inequality in the name of some glorious but forever distant future.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Say what you will about the United States but at least it takes more than a majority vote in the House of Representatives to start taking away our rights. You'd also need a majority vote in the US Senate, the signature of the President (or 2/3'rds vote in the aforementioned chambers), the acquiescence of the 50 States and the Federal judiciary.
And that certainly helped you during the 8 years with W didn't it.