Re: Government Noses

["Peter Tomlinson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]

David Swarbrick writes:
> The trouble is Simon, that the recent Government advertising compaign
aginst
> homelessness glorified in making the citizens - all of them - afraid of
the
> power of government to see everything read everything hera everything and
> generally - nothing is left private anymore.
>
> It is a disgraceful campaign, and it uses exactly the fear you ridicule as
> an implicit threat against anybody who might one day come up against the
> government.
>
> Benefit claimants individually are _not_ generally fraudsters, and when
they
> are they are not serious crime, but they are all made to feel cheap and of
> nil-value by your employer's advertising.
>
> The paranoia you ridicule is exactly encouraged and fostered by the civil
> servant who implemented the campaign.
>

David puts it very lucidly. I agree. And it strengthens the argument for
constitutional change, so that we become citizens instead of subjects. In
about 1990 Shirley Williams warned us that we need a new constitutional
settlement to help balance the scales in the face of the growing power of
the executive.

Peter