Sleep-walking to Police State Britain

Remember these scenes in Parliament Square on 15th September 2004 during the 3rd reading of the Hunting Act? I do too. I was present throughout and the experience turned my view of the police on it's head. From traditional friendly defenders and protectors of the public, they became the armed, bone-headed enforcers of an oppressive State.

Simplistic sounding I know. All I can say is that, when you have been on the receiving end of that kind of 'enforcement', then listened to the 'official' version of what is SUPPOSED to have happened (all very plausible to the public who always want to give the police the benefit of any doubt), your view of the police and the State can never be quite the same again.

I have been forcefully reminded of all this a number of times over the past 12 months, from the Charles de Menenez and Forest Gate shootings at one end of the scale to the detention and prosecution on 18th June of Steven Jago under the "Serious Organised Crime & Police Act" for - get this; it is taken from an article in today's Independant and 100% accurate:

...carrying a placard in Whitehall bearing the George Orwell quote: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." In his possession, he had several copies of an article in the American magazine Vanity Fair headlined "Blair's Big Brother Legacy". The police told Mr Jago this was 'politically motivated' material, and suggested it was evidence of his desire to break the law.

Please read that article. It is real eye-opener. It provides alarming insight into just how, on the back of whipped up outrage and fear, through the 'Respect agenda', 'fighting crime', increasing 'security' and the 'war on terror' the State is undermining what little there is left of our so called 'free society'