The erosion of our society – Civil liberties

Over the last three decades, our civil liberty has been eroded, more so than in any time in history. This has not been by accident, but I believe it has been done by design. In fact, the powers that be, have used all sorts of events to justify the creeping changes that have engulfed us over recent years.

Have no doubt that this happening for the reasons that we are told, this is not for the greater good, this is a monster’s tentacles, slowly stifling our very right to live the way our forefathers fought for us to be able to live.

There are so many incremental changes that are gradually taking us down the road the a dystopian society, that I could not possibly mention all here, but here are a few individually minor, but collectively significant changes that have happened since the nineties.

1. Following the detonation of an IRA bomb, the prime minister at the time, John Major, introduced a bill, denying terrorists the right to silence, with Judges being allowed to infer that a defendant’s silence could be considered an admission of guilt, thereby directing the Jury to find the defendant guilty.  The masses supported this, after all, why should terrorists be allowed to hide behind silence? However, this was the thin end of the wedge, because when nobody was looking, Terrorists right to silence, was modified slightly, but that was significant.
2. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, went further than the previous act, denying criminals the right to silence, Part III, sections 34–39 which substantially changed the right to silence of an accused person, allowing for inferences to be drawn from their silence. That meant that anyone accused of a crime, could either speak up and possibly incriminate themselves, or be considered guilty by keeping silent.
3. The introduction of the speed camera. Although the first speed camera was actually installed on the M40 Motorway. west of London, it was a few years before there was an explosion of them, but either way, the masses did not consider the implications of this. For the first time, since the Magna Carta, the citizens of this country had gone from innocent until proved guilty, to guilty until proven innocent, the changes above will be regarded as revolutionary in years to come, if we are allowed to actually discuss them by then.

What does this have to do with our every day lives?

This and the subsequent incremental changes have a lot to do with our daily lives, we have not even noticed the veil of autocracy that has engulfed us, but rest assured that it has, in so many ways, from the ability to protest, express opinions, or even question the workings of our government, who use the official secrets act as a ‘get out of jail free card’

As we are all aware, we have recently suffered a pandemic, with countries around the world, seizing the opportunity to introduce draconian laws, in order to ‘protect us’

Create a problem – Terrify the nation – Offer a solution

The standard gameplay of modern politics, the reason we invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and many more. If there is no enemy, there is less reason for them to be taking drastic measures to safeguard the nation.

We may be under the impression that we are living in the free world, perhaps less restricted than some of course, but we are far from free, our right to an opinion is rapidly being taken from us. We are forced to pander to minorities that the government does not actually care about, but rather exploiting, so that they can use their cause, issues or fears, to silence the rest of us, then gradually, rule by rule, legal act by legal act, we are being socially imprisoned by what seems to be our own choice.