Britain: Nanny state

[Wiglaf]

They should ban kids from planes. This is what Sparta would do. I actually wanted to have kids until I was trapped on a plane near one.

MOMM HAVE WE TAKEN OFF YET? DOES MY UNDERWARE HAVE A BOMB IN IT??

I'm sure at least a few have been molested just to shut them up.

[Cort Haus]

So what laws should the British government pass on this privately-owned company to dictate how they seat passengers?

You almost sound like you approve of BA's ludicrous behaviour. I'm sure you don't, of course. If BA insisted that all muslims were to sit in special concrete-and-steel reinforced boxes would you say the same thing?

The British government certainly has played their part in the obsessive and insidious hysteria that assumes all adults (especially males) to be kiddly-fiddlers by default. This obsession is probably actually harmful to children as it distorts the normal, natural and healthy relationships between people, arousing fear, suspicion and paranoia where none need exist.

The country is run by cretins and cowards who have let irrational memes spiral out of control to the point that innocent people are treated like criminals, and lynch-mob mentality prevails over decency and common-sense.

What's almost worse, is that it's left to right-wing rags like the Mail and the Telegraph to report on abuses by the authorities, and the abuses carried out by business in irrational fear of the panics whipped up by the authorities, because the complicit 'liberal' rags are now too much a part of the authoritarian establishment to say anything themselves.

[Cort Haus]

And with regards to the thread-title - we're way past the nanny state. We're now living in a bully-state.

[ricketyclik]

They should ban kids from planes. This is what Sparta would do. I actually wanted to have kids until I was trapped on a plane near one.

MOMM HAVE WE TAKEN OFF YET? DOES MY UNDERWARE HAVE A BOMB IN IT??

I'm sure at least a few have been molested just to shut them up.

I thought the Spartans routinely brought young boys with them on their campaigns for "companionship" and night-time amusements.

[Cort Haus]

But to be fair (and I feel like a canadian making three posts in a row after a few beers), it's not just the guvmint.

Basically, anyone who has ever smoked a joint, broken the speed limit, shagged a hooker, or got into a bar fight is potentially excluded from any public position from government minister to a classroom teacher by the squeaky-clean whiter-than-white expectations of press-intrusion and criminal-record checks under which we live. This leaves the field clear for jobsworth Mary-Poppins-like characters to take control and set up a ruling elite who revel in stifling social controls - lecturing and hectoring us over every aspect of our lives, from what we eat and drink, to what we put in the rubbish, to the type of light-bulbs we are allowed to light our homes with, and they won't be satisfied until there is a camera in every room monitoring every detail of our lives to ensure that we are not ****ing small children up the arse - because apparently, that is what we are capable of if we are not saved from each other and ourselves.


[/rant]

[KrazyHorse]

But to be fair (and I feel like a canadian making three posts in a row after a few beers), it's not just the guvmint.

What the **** are you on aboot?

[KrazyHorse]

It's not like we can't control ourselves

[KrazyHorse]

We just choose not to.

[Cort Haus]

[KrazyHorse]

It's really sad, but I was already drinking when I read that

[BlackCat]

And with regards to the thread-title - we're way past the nanny state. We're now living in a bully-state.

Just start to wear funny masks and blow up buildings on november 5

[Cort Haus]

It's half-past-eleven here. I've been drinking for hours.

[Dauphin]

The country is run by [..] Basically, anyone who has ever smoked a joint, broken the speed limit, shagged a hooker, or got into a bar fight.

Alistair Darling (dabbler that he was)
Harriet Harman (ok, it was case over using a mobile phone in the car).
The Tories will be in power soon (which of them hasn't shagged a hooker)
Nick Griffin (he'll be PM one day).

[BlackCat]

.

[Cort Haus]

Dauphin, these 'sleaze' stories are used by newspapers and political opponents to discredit existing politicians, and they brought down a government to let 'Trust Me' Blair in, but my point is than many people are discouraged from entering politics because they see it as a field where any blot on the copybook is potentially a career-ending factor.

I was also making the point that you cannot even be a teacher these days with any kind of history. A woman who has had some, erm, personal photos beyond her control can lose her job, and have done so.

Politically, what happens is that many good people are discouraged from that career because any historical indiscretions can be fatal, so the field is reduced, and hence the overall calibre. Some might not be deterred (the most ambitions, perhaps), but many will.