Quote :

"As an ex-Brit, I’m well aware of the authorities’ love of surveillance and snooping, but even I, a pessimistic cynic, am amazed by the governments latest plan: to install Orwell’s telescreens in 20,000 homes. £400 million ($668 million) will be spend on installing and monitoring CCTV cameras in the homes of private citizens. Why? To make sure the kids are doing their homework, going to bed early and eating their vegetables. The scheme has, astonishingly, already been running in 2,000 family homes. The government’s “children’s secretary” Ed Balls is behind the plan, which is aimed at problem, antisocial families. The idea is that, if a child has a more stable home life, he or she will be less likely to stray into crime and drugs. It gets worse. The government is also maintaining a private army, incredibly not called “Thought Police”, which will “be sent round to carry out home checks,” according to the Sunday Express. And in a scheme which firmly cements the nation’s reputation as a “nanny state”, the kids and their families will be forced to sign “behavior contracts” which will “set out parents’ duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.” And remember, this is the left-wing government. The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling, batting for the conservatives, thinks these plans are “too little, and too late,” implying that even more obtrusive work needs to be done. Rumors that a new detention center, named Room 101, is being constructed inside the Ministry of Love are unconfirmed."

I really can't believe this. I'm rather appalled that Britain is this intrusive into the lives of its citizens. I wonder when England made such a cataclysmic switch.

8/4/2009 9:18:20 AM

it's been a slow, slippery slope for decades now.

but, hey, more government involvement in our lives is good, right democrats?

8/4/2009 9:23:10 AM

now now now bobby, the conservatives there are in full support and say it doesn't go far enough and given the direction the conservatives took our nation the last 8 years i could see our republicans saying/doing similar.

8/4/2009 9:28:53 AM

Do you have a better source than Wired.com on this? That's all I can find, and this story smells like bullshit, or at least a lot of half-truths.

8/4/2009 9:29:34 AM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5888162/Worst-families-in-Britain-will-be-put-in-sin-bins.html

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/115736/Sin-bins-for-worst-families

8/4/2009 9:32:29 AM

^^^

no doubt, we are in a very unfortunate political situation.

8/4/2009 9:35:39 AM

^^^^you do realize that liberal and conservative means something entirely different in Great Britain right?

8/4/2009 9:47:25 AM

dude, save your rolley eyes. i never said that they are the same as our republicans, and i'm positive you didn't even assume I meant that, you honestly just felt like being a dick because you had nothing constructive to say.

the conservative party in britain is still the right and is the conservative, though the would be considered more liberal than the united states republican party based on some of their stances. i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are aware of all of this and you just felt like being a jack ass rather than consider you possibly have no clue about what it is you are speaking.

8/4/2009 9:57:05 AM

Quote :

"Ed Balls"

8/4/2009 10:03:21 AM

8/4/2009 10:05:27 AM

Well it's about time they put cameras in people's home to keep an eye on them.

If you're not doing anything wrong, then why should you care?

Just think how much money the gov't can save by sending the police early to crimes.

Just think of all the jobs that will be created for the CCTV industry.

They need to hurry and do it right away, without reading any legislation.

8/4/2009 10:48:09 AM

didn't we just learn that the extent of the phone tapping done by the Bush administration was massive?

8/4/2009 11:07:04 AM

Quote :

"If you're not doing anything wrong, then why should you care? "

Funny, I remember more than 1 'conservative' on this very website saying the same thing about FISA.

8/4/2009 11:27:41 AM

Why is there an assumption amongst right wingers on this board that Democrats (or actual leftists for that matter) are committed idealogically to supporting this sort of thing in any way, shape, or form?

8/4/2009 11:53:05 AM

more government = more abuse. Democrats love large government => democrats love abuse.

In reality both sides love abuse.

8/4/2009 12:05:44 PM

Quote :

"more government = more abuse. Democrats love large government => democrats love abuse."

Oh okay that makes perfect sense

Do you actually listen to the shit that you say?

8/4/2009 12:10:29 PM

Large government is great i love it. More power to give kickbacks to special interests.

8/4/2009 12:12:13 PM

Part of me is appalled.
Part of me suspects that this will become irrelevant post singularity.

8/4/2009 12:18:36 PM

This is fucking crazy. The world is officially coming to an end.
Now, for me, Britain is only marginally better than North Korea.

Quote :

"Why is there an assumption amongst right wingers on this board that Democrats (or actual leftists for that matter) are committed idealogically to supporting this sort of thing in any way, shape, or form?"

Are you kidding? That's the irrefutable direction the left/democrats are moving in, and have been for some time. They aren't just "save the whales", and "protect the minorities and poor", but also, "destroy the private sector", "government knows best", "nanny-state", etc.

Quote :

"post singularity."

I intellectually despise people who simply assume this "singularity" is inevitable. Quit fucking thinking like that!

[Edited on August 4, 2009 at 12:42 PM. Reason : ]

8/4/2009 12:41:59 PM

8/4/2009 1:01:54 PM

Government plusgood. Praise Ingsoc.

8/4/2009 1:44:51 PM

Quote :

"more government = more abuse. Democrats love large government => democrats love abuse."

While i don't agree with any of the spending or garbage coming from the liberal congress; quit fooling yourself.

This is something a consortium of George Bush and friends would have come up with in their effort to "War on Drugs", "Enforce Family Values", or some other bullshit morality and national security convolution.
The Republicans as of the last 8 years enjoy large government just as much as the democrats. Instead though they tend to over bloat defense and support Gestapo style internal security type activities.

Personally i think if these families are so bad that they require CCTV than perhaps british social services need to remove the kids in the first place.

Fucking CHAVS!



The Democrats support large government just though in a style that steals my money to give to welfare queens and to be my nanny by trying to get me to quit cigarettes.

[Edited on August 4, 2009 at 8:46 PM. Reason : a]

8/4/2009 8:40:37 PM

Man, all this shit they're doing is way more expensive than just sterilizing these folks.

I thought we agreed in the early 20th century that the best way to go about making sure invalids raise their kids well is to simply make sure that they can't have kids.

8/4/2009 9:06:04 PM

yeah, i'm starting to think that the lesser of about 84362 evils is forced sterilization.

[Edited on August 4, 2009 at 9:08 PM. Reason : maybe they should pilot this program first in new jersey. or florida. ]

8/4/2009 9:08:07 PM

are welfare queens really taking everyone's money?

8/5/2009 3:54:17 PM

Quote :

"are welfare queens really taking everyone's money?"

Of course not. The income gap has basically tripled in the past 30 years, yet somehow "welfare queens" are getting all the money and not rich people. lmao.

8/5/2009 4:03:30 PM

take out the freedom aspect all together....

how does anyone think a program with this level of micromanagement has any chance to make a real impact...

2000 families? 20,000 families?

england has about 61 million people

this is stupid

8/5/2009 4:07:23 PM

Quote :

"are welfare queens really taking everyone's money?"

By definition, yes, they are.

Quote :

" Of course not. The income gap has basically tripled in the past 30 years, yet somehow "welfare queens" are getting all the money and not rich people. lmao. "

Blame that on the welfare queens. They(by this I mean the ones on welfare who COULD do something else) are perfectly content doing nothing and being rewarded. I'm sorry that these rewards didn't grow as fast as the payrolls of the rest of the people out there working for the past 30 years. We can hope the discrepancy becomes larger and larger, maybe some people would realize the benefits to working their hass of for what they receive.

8/5/2009 4:09:24 PM

oh jesus I cant think of more pressing issues that some crackheads getting 200 bucks a week so they dont start shooting people.

8/5/2009 4:17:46 PM

Quote :

"Blame that on the welfare queens. They(by this I mean the ones on welfare who COULD do something else) are perfectly content doing nothing and being rewarded. I'm sorry that these rewards didn't grow as fast as the payrolls of the rest of the people out there working for the past 30 years. We can hope the discrepancy becomes larger and larger, maybe some people would realize the benefits to working their hass of for what they receive."

Hmm yes welfare queens are the reason why the income gap has widened. Somebody get Science on the line right away.

8/5/2009 4:29:13 PM

The income gap is due to America's suckass public education system.

8/5/2009 4:39:33 PM

Quote :

"The income gap is due to America's suckass public education system."

8/5/2009 6:28:57 PM

so can we now start calling it Airstrip One?

8/5/2009 7:34:16 PM

I found the evidence more convincing that the income gap was being caused by foreigners.

In 1971 around 4.5% of US Residents were Foreign Born and today that figure has exploded to 12%. As recent immigrants face far lower wages than other Americans, the growth of their proportion of the bottom income quarter from 18% to 48% has most certainly dragged down our statistics. But, overall, these poor immigrants have had their incomes grow dramatically by moving to America, so from a global perspective the income disparity has been reduced by the immigration in question.

8/6/2009 12:54:17 AM

Quote :

"the conservative party in britain is still the right and is the conservative, though the would be considered more liberal than the united states republican party based on some of their stances. i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are aware of all of this and you just felt like being a jack ass rather than consider you possibly have no clue about what it is you are speaking."

That's exactly what I was going after. Thanks for just reinforcing my comment.

[Edited on August 6, 2009 at 8:26 AM. Reason : & don't interchange the words conversative with republican. They don't mean the same thing anymore.]

8/6/2009 8:24:33 AM

The tory party in britain is a lot different than the "conservative" party aka Republican party of the US.

From my impression they are more libertarian, and a lot more non-interventionist

8/6/2009 11:36:45 AM

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/news/content.cfm?landing=family_intervention_projects&type=1

Emphasis added of course:

Quote :

"Responding to stories claiming that irresponsible families will be monitored by CCTV cameras in their own homes, a DCSF spokesperson said: Families will not be monitored by CCTV in their own homes. Through Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) we are supporting and challenging the small number of families involved in persistent anti-social behaviour. FIP workers spend time observing families in their own homes, helping them to recognise that their anti-social behaviour is unacceptable. They focus on the causes of their behaviour, and challenge them to make changes so they can turn their lives around. A very small number of families who need further intensive support are placed in residential units with project workers living with them – this does not involve CCTV."

It sure did make for some compelling TWW action for a moment there though.

8/7/2009 3:49:49 AM

Aha, and now I guess it's time for this thread to die.

8/7/2009 6:19:05 AM

I seem to do that a lot.

8/7/2009 7:18:37 AM

salisburyboy would never let this thread die.

would he Mr. Joshua

8/7/2009 10:08:41 AM

Him and Dan Rather both.

[Edited on August 7, 2009 at 11:05 AM. Reason : .]

8/7/2009 11:05:28 AM