Pour me another one Gordon

I think we could sort all this if just all sat down round a nice fire and had a sing song...


Though the fire would have to be a 'soft' light incase we burn ourselves and we would have to mumble as to not copyright infringe any songs.

[G]

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

I fear those geuinely horrified by all this government intrusion are in the minority.

You are probably right.

The vast majority probably couldnt careless right now, they have bigger fish to fry, like keeping hold of their jobs, enjoying life and paying the mortgage.

Things like smoking and drinking are areas that effect a minority, and only the hardline drinkers, smokers and liberals are that bothered they feel the need to speak out.

G2D makes the point that legislation creates the path for yet more legislation, which I think is what you are getting at, allowing intrusion into our lives make way for yet more intrusion later on down the line.

Sadly some intrusion is necessary as common sense within the majority appears to be all but gone, and the majority of people are idiots.

Me..........I have taken to not watching the news, not reading the papers, which are all filled with benefits this, immigrants thats and heres some legislation the goverment is thinking about. Half of the crap discussed never comes to anything, and not hearing about all the other crap makes life a whole lot more relaxing.

[G]

Originally Posted by Dave The Rave

We could talk about this for ages. As a country with most CCTV cameras per person in the world (1% of world's population and 20% plus of all CCTVs) we live in the country where we are more and more restricted. What to drink, eat, smoke etc. And solution to the problem is pushing the prices of each commodity higher and higher (fags, drinks, petrol, drugs, food etc). There is no real education as majority of us is happy to "follow". I find it disturbing as we do not come up with real solutions but with short term fixes which in long term create more problems (setting precedens etc). I don't think there is a way how to stop that. There will be ID cards, constant monitoring of internet usage, speed box in each car/bike, 10 cctv cameras per head, automatic access to everyone bank account to deduct fines for speeding, drinking too much, buying too much unhealthy food etc. Yet we will be helping some God forgotten country in who knows where to establish democracy and give asylum to more criminals flooding this country from all over the world. Madness!

Well, rant over

I think you need to take this approach.....

Originally Posted by G

Me..........I have taken to not watching the news, not reading the papers, which are all filled with benefits this, immigrants thats and heres some legislation the goverment is thinking about. Half of the crap discussed never comes to anything, and not hearing about all the other crap makes life a whole lot more relaxing.

Try it for a week. Feels great not hearing about all the crap that is 'apparently' going on.

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

You don't smoke and get in to fights

I don't drink and get into fights. If anything, I'm more likely to walk away from trouble after a few jars than when I'm sober.

Originally Posted by G

You are probably right.

The vast majority probably couldnt careless right now, they have bigger fish to fry, like keeping hold of their jobs, enjoying life and paying the mortgage.

Things like smoking and drinking are areas that effect a minority, and only the hardline drinkers, smokers and liberals are that bothered they feel the need to speak out.

I don't think that's the reason people don't seem to stand up against this kind of thing. Either people simply want as little responsibility as possible, even over their own lives; or they're deluding themselves into thinking that one more ban is ok, because nothing they do would ever be banned.

Originally Posted by G

G2D makes the point that legislation creates the path for yet more legislation, which I think is what you are getting at, allowing intrusion into our lives make way for yet more intrusion later on down the line.

Sadly some intrusion is necessary as common sense within the majority appears to be all but gone, and the majority of people are idiots.

Absolutely. But the whole thing is cyclical. The more responsibility that's taken away from people, the less responsible they'll become - the less responsible they become, the more responsibility they'll have taken away. This is obviously not something that can continue forever, and the sooner the circle is broken the least painful it'll be. Can't see it happening any time soon though.

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

I don't think that's the reason people don't seem to stand up against this kind of thing. Either people simply want as little responsibility as possible, even over their own lives; or they're deluding themselves into thinking that one more ban is ok, because nothing they do would ever be banned.

But no one makes a stand in the UK for the fear of being prosecuted. I don’t doubt that if you made a stand against Council Tax having risen above the rate of inflation for over 5 years in addition to a loss in services; you’d no doubt be cuffed and thrown in jail quicker than Mosley can even dream of! Our legal system used to be the fairest in the world. Now criminals treat it like a game and the civilised population live in fear of becoming the next statistic on their database.

Make your stand, have your 5 minutes in the papers before you’re forgotten in time. Re-enter life out of prison to be turned down from jobs by computers screening CVs. The fear instilled in the ‘good’ of the population couldn’t be higher. And believe it or not, most of the population are in that ‘good’ category.

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

Absolutely. But the whole thing is cyclical. The more responsibility that's taken away from people, the less responsible they'll become - the less responsible they become, the more responsibility they'll have taken away. This is obviously not something that can continue forever, and the sooner the circle is broken the least painful it'll be. Can't see it happening any time soon though.

It’s almost like dumbing down the nation is beneficial for the government. As if the current methods are leading to a two-tier society where the masses live in a rigidly controlled, taxing ‘factory’, feeding a grotesque top-rung of power crazy delinquents free to do as they wish.

I'll make a stand... but no one joines me, its gets lonely.

I'm sure 'continental drinking' is a myth. They drink JUST as much. They're just more composed under the influence.