Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

I agree with what your saying, but the mega rich are rich for a reason and they can afford the best lawyers. So, it's not just effort to go after them but it also needs money, taxpayers money.

The police spend roughly £20 million a year on translators for foreign nationals, but how many have been let off with a caution if the translator fee costs more than the caution and small fine in court.

Why have the likes of certain football clubs in the last few months been found guilty of breaching the, financial fair play rules, which resulted in two premiership clubs being deducted points, yet the super rich clubs that have broken far more rules have gone unpunished. These mega rich clubs have mega rich owners, who will be able to afford the best lawyers and string in out in the courts for months. It needs money to go after them, so is it worth going after them if it's going to cost millions, especially if it ends up being tax payers money? Anyways they have now abolished the, financial fare play, rules, so its very unlikely these other clubs will ever be punished, the charges against them would not of been a 6 or 10 point reduction but far more, they would end up being relegated.

 

Nick CL

Which is absurd, really, if you think about it. I would get the civil liberties argument, if it wasn't for the fact that you need to consent to companies selling your data, to do pretty much anything now. You can refuse, but since so many businesses operate through this model it severely restricts you if you want to buy anything online.

How many online accounts do you have? Probably dozens, I've lost count. The only purely cash transactions are things like hairdressers, everything else is tracked and used for marketing.

We are kidding ourselves if we think we have any more personal liberties because we don't have ID cards.

 

I agree entirely re the problem of the rich having endless access to lawyers, @gks. That is why unexplained wealth orders don't work. Theresa May had the opportunity to write into the law that the amount the person under scrutiny could spend on lawyers would be limited, but she refused to do so. Thus the legislation became just another eg of the gov pretending to do something when, in reality, no action would ever be possible.

I am against ID cards since Covid, because of their potential to stop people doing necessary things, like go to supermarkets, on the whim of gov ministers. We saw how quickly elements of totalitarianism were foisted on the public - isolation, endless propaganda, and so forth. In the digital age, an ID card could become a weapon used against citizens. It already is in some countries and we don't have an accountable enough democracy anymore to be sure that could not happen here.

 

I worked in Holland for a year and had to carry an ID card at all times, it was never an inconvenience and I think we should go down the same route. The Dutch don’t have problems, why should we? We are no more, or less a totalitarian state than they are.

 

You can't walk down many streets these days with out being tracked by cameras.

I cant even walk out my gate without my neighbour having me on their doorbell camera.

 

Indeed, but tracking by cameras, etc, is not the same as the gov being able to put a block on your ID that stops you from accessing X or Y.

Carrying a smart phone is optional ... at least currently. Yes, the tech companies track your every breath, and there may come a time when their power exceeds govs, but we aren't quite there yet. A digital ID card would have bigger implications, IMV. Ten yrs ago, fine. Now and with future tech developments likely, I'm not so sure.

 

Well it's one of those things that brings to mind having to show your ID on demand, I don't see it like that.
I rarely carry my driving licence I don't think tou have to by law.
To me it should just be something that you might have to produce if entering certain buildings or if you get in trouble with the law.

 

I don't want us to have mandatory ID cards. Not because of some delusion of privacy. We leave a digital footprint everywhere. I just don't want to have to remember to carry something with me. An impromptu walk out while there's a gap in the rain? Hold on, let me find where I last put my ID card, oh wait, I have no safe pockets in what I'm currently wearing, just let me get changed first.

If the coppers want to stop me in the street and figure out who I am, here's a novel idea. They could just ask me. If they don't want to trust me they can just check on line where my passport and driving licence details are securely held by the relevant government agencies. And if I was the sort to try to conceal my identity from the coppers, well in that case I wouldn't show them my ID card even if I had one.

Would it be an offense simply to not carry the ID card? That would be a fundamental shift in the core principles of our rights in the UK. Currently, you are assumed innocent unless proven guilty. That means if you're out and about, unless there's a good reason to think you've done something wrong, you should be left alone. If it suddenly becomes an offence not to carry an ID card, then you're suddenly a criminal for failing to carry some state sanctioned accessory.

 

It is illegal here to have a Dashcam in your car or CCTV on your property where you are looking at another property ... both are considered Invasion of Privacy.

 

I sometimes think it should be over here.
Too much unregulated surveillance.

Someone was using a drone over the back of my garden last weekend.

 

For me the issue is, once introduced, what it is used for can be expanded, and that is more likely under populist govs, which in turn are more likely when economic inequality within society reaches a tipping point. To run a totalitarian state, or even just elements of totalitarianism, you only need about 30% of the population to be in agreement. Another 40% will go along with things for a peaceful life, and the 30% who oppose it are silenced and isolated and vilified. It is not until the 40% in the middle start getting restless (as happened eventually with draconian lockdowns in China) that the hold is broken, at least temporarily.

I would highly recommend The Psychology of Totalitarianism by Mattias Desmet. A short but excellent read.

Plus, I'm sure none of us seriously believes gov held digital data can only be seen and used by govs.

 

Sounds like Britain today.

 

Freedom disappeared some years ago, it's mostly because of technology.

 

I think some of you are getting carried away with our supposed lack of freedom. I have worked under some truly totalitarian regimes, and they are nothing like here.
The Dutch are very similar to us, and they have no problems with ID cards, it is not as though you are regularly asked to produce them.
The increasing paranoia in western society, is imo a massive problem. I don't think this, or any other UK government gives a stuff about what I do, and I worked for them during the COVID crisis.