This Government Is Evil

A government which acts to stoke fear and division, and which is openly derisive of liberty, can be nothing else. Imagine this: a government minister brazenly announces that if we don't accept draconian surveillance measures, we will die. This is a free society?

So, in case you had missed it, here it is again:

But the Lib Dems' communities spokeswoman Julia Goldsworthy said it sounded like "something I would expect to read in [George Orwell's book] 1984" and questioned whether the government and councils could be trusted not to misuse the powers.

She asked: "How much more control can they have? How far is he prepared to go to undermine civil liberties?"

Mr Hoon interjected: "To stop terrorists killing people in our society, quite a long way actually.

"If they are going to use the internet to communicate with each other and we don't have the power to deal with that, then you are giving a licence to terrorists to kill people."


He added: "The biggest civil liberty of all is not to be killed by a terrorist."

This government must be defeated, crushed and destroyed. With such raging contempt for a value that has taken centuries to build, in painful and slow-moving struggles, which needs to be at the heart of any civilisation - the right of an individual to be themselves, and not to be afraid of constant monitoring and punishment, not be assumed to be a criminal - they have set about tearing down the boundaries between state and citizen.

There is a word for this approach of governments to their people, when they promote fear, want to watch every aspect of an individual's life, want to punish, both judicially and extra-judicially, who demand conformity, and who, crucially, leave innocent people guilty (the "recording" of allegations, the DNA theft,) or ensure they are unaware when they have committed a crime.

This word begins with a "t". Ironically, it is a word they often use themselves, to defend these inhuman measures.

It means to be afraid.

I'm not going to say it: even the word itself makes me shudder.