Another Reason Not to Move to the UK

[DanaC]

umm.....yeah...like, if you're innocent you have nothing to fear:P

Okay, I am wholly against this idea. I am also wholly against ID cards. That said:

I begin to see the difference between subject and citizen.

Wolf, are you saying the US is not engaged in curtailing the civil liberties of its citizenry at the present time?

This has nothing to do with the fact that the Uk is a Monarchy. The Monarchy is virtually toothless and to all intents and purposes laws such as these are civil in nature. The only role the Monarchy plays is to give its 'Royal Consent' to a bill prior to its passing into law.(as a point of interest this is done in Norman french :P) That consent is not in question; its a rubber stamp. The decision making process is at a civil level, governed (primarily) by democratically elected ministers.

I'd love to blame this on the monarchy.....I'd love to blame the very fact that such a law could be considered, on us being 'subjects' not 'citizens'. But the reality is we are both 'citizens' and 'subjects'. We are citizens of the country and 'subjects' of the Queen and the power lies in our status as citizen not in our status as subject.

Truly, we have nobody to blame for the current and planned infringements of our civil liberties, but the Government and ministers we elected to serve us. In other words, we have nobody to blame but ourselves:P

Oh, and I am with Jay on this. Clearly the Government has forgotten to take into account our nation's record on sheer bloody-mindedness. Its time to don our collective dressing-gown, put an apple in the pocket and lie down in front of the Bull-dozer.

[glatt]

I can't speak for wolf, but I think what she might have been getting at is that our country was formed during a violent rebellion against the crown. So we hold things like privacy and freedom to be very important. It's part of our being. Or at least it was. The times are changing when people like 9th will happily give up privacy and freedom in exchange for the false promise of some extra security.