Bang to rights

I came across something startling in the papers yesterday. Apparently, by 2009 we'll all have to report to special processing centres to have our fingerprints scanned for inclusion on biometric identity cards being proposed by the Home Office. I am a bit worried by this. Not for the fact that I am concerned that the powers-that-be will uncover any wrong doing on my part. It's because it's one more step down the road to a UK where the population is micro-managed, tracked, plotted and analysed. Like any police state, in such a situation there is -by definition -a presumption of non-specific culpability... you must be guilty of something - we just don't know what yet! Doesn't this go against the most fundemental principle of English Law and of democracy? And while we hear so much hand-wringing about protecting the rights of wrongdoers, what about the rights of decent ordinary people to go about their lives without having Blair's thought police looking over their shoulders?

We are already one of the most monitored populations on the planet. Why do we need yet more scrutiny? The answer is down to the idealogical trap that Blair's government has led us into. Bleeding heart liberals (with a small L), mired in their own politically-correct idealogy, cannot find the courage to confront and deal with the real miscreants in society because that might infringe their "human rights". So, society in general has to share the blame collectively. This means we are all presumed to be guilty and must be monitored and controlled on that basis. I don't want to live in this kind of world: It's about time politicians found the courage to grasp difficult social issues and deal with them decisively. The very future of democracy - our democracy - is at stake if they don't.