The U.S. seems to trail the U.K. by about 3-5 years in Nanny Statism. That is, dumb proposals there get enacted about five years before they’re enacted here. That said, Rogier van Bakel offers a scary glimpse of what’s ahead:

Ah, Britain. Where you can be fined for saying ‘fuck’ in a private conversation. Where every single child will soon be fingerprinted. Where all people will be ordered to carry an I.D. card at all times, to be swiped every time they withdraw a fairly small amount of money from the bank, buy an airline ticket, apply for a fishing license, purchase property, apply for a library card, get a prescription filled, and so on. Where the government wants to make the possession of “abusive porn” a crime. Where you can be sentenced to 80 hours of community service for wearing the wrong T-shirt. Where having a pen knife in your car can get you arrested. Where being too fat can get you carted off to a mental institution. Where government workers will come to your home to verify you’re not using too much electricity, and to note whether or not you smoke. Where all vehicles’ whereabouts will soon be monitored by satellite 24/7. Where you’ll get fined for using a pencil instead of a pen when filling out a form. Where people are captured by video surveillance cameras some 300 times a day. Where officials tell you how to go to the bathroom.

Check Rogier’s site for hyperlink goodness.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 17th, 2006 at 5:05 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.