Democratic Freedom

Two stories have caught my eye today.

First, the ongoing saga about the racist bigot Nick Griffin attending a Buckingham Palace garden party and, second, the news that the police have constructed a national network of cameras and computers which automatically log car number plates and which will be in place within months.

What links the two, you ask?

Let's deal with the police first. This constant demand for more surveillance is seductive but wrong. Seductive because every policeman, lawyer and Nulab politician can recite facts and examples as to how many more crimes they could solve if we could just watch people more. Wrong because we have tipped over the balance of what is reasonable interference in our day-to-day lives by the forces of the state.

As I blogged a few days ago in relation to euthanasia, we must always make laws for the 99% not the 1%. I am sure we could catch just about all criminals if we took DNA samples of the entire population and watched everyone all the time, but that is clearly unacceptable. And so is establishing a national network to spy on the perfectly legal 99% of us. This could only happen in illiberal Nulab Britain, where democratic freedom is expendable.

Now, should BNP politicians be allowed to take tea at the Palace? Simple answer: yes. I hate the BNP and their racist, thuggish bigotry. But we live in the cradle of democracy. And democracy can sometimes be uncomfortable because those people with abhorrent views are allowed to express them. And, despite the fact that I hate them, I would fight for their right for them to hold and express those horrible views. It's called democracy and liberal fascists like Nulab just don't get it.

Democracy is a fragile thing, one that the current Nulab Government has been doing its best to destroy for some time. Take democracy for granted at your peril. As we can see, it can be easily be eroded.