This news makes me so depressed that I just want to cry. This isn't the way British society should be. What on earth has happened to our freedoms?
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Travel plans 'to be tracked' by UK Government
All travel plans to be tracked by Government
Anyone departing the UK by land, sea or air will have their trip recorded and stored on a database for a decade.
Passengers leaving every international sea port, station or airport will have to supply detailed personal information as well as their travel plans.
(link via telegraph.co.uk)
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I read that our government agreed to do this at the request of America, which really wouldn't surprise me sadly.
ReplyDeleteRegardless I agree with what you say and I'm just so glad that I don't have, or indeed want, to travel abroad any more.
It's the amount of personal information have they require that I find particularly unsettling! xx
Yes, it's bad enough that everyone has to register online at least three days in advance before they can travel to the USA but this new plan will be monitoring all exits from the UK, no matter where you are going - not just travel to the USA.
ReplyDeleteAnd on top of that, they will be holding the details for a decade! It's outrageous.
We are sleepwaking further and further into a Faschist state. And if that sounds over-dramatic, I don't care. There are so many decisions being made which we never even get to hear about and which affect us directly or indirectly. This country is so busy crawling to USA and the EU, there is hardly anything left of us as a strong, independent nation any more.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I agree with your views, Jenny. Big Brother Britain is keeping tabs on everyone by building all their databases about us and also willingly sharing our personal data with the USA and the EU. We have no privacy and precious little freedom left.
ReplyDeleteMaureen, I still think that no matter how tight things appear to become in Britain, we are not Zimbabwe, North Korea or Saddam Hussein's Iraq. No one is going to arrest us for making these posts, for instance, as they almost certainly would in China.
ReplyDeleteI agree that these new travel database plans are probably unjustified, but I do think we need to keep things in perspective. I was very surprised at your last comment, where you say we have "precious little freedom left". I think substantial numbers of people around the world would consider even the tighest British state as being more free than anything they've been used to in their lives.
Daniel, you are quite right to point out that we aren't as bad as the places you mention and that I should keep things in perspective. I admit I overstated the case by saying we have precious little freedom left. It would probably be more correct to say that our privacy is quickly disappearing and that our freedom is being attacked.
ReplyDeleteI'm genuinely worried that british society isn't as free as it used to be. Our civil liberties and our right to privacy are being eroded bit by bit - all in the name of security. We have a proliferation of CCTV cameras, ID cards/database, DNA database, ContactPoint (the national children’s database), a database holding details of telephone calls and emails, and now this travellers database.
Ah well, with coming up to three million on the dole - maybe this will take up some of them.
ReplyDeleteThere must be an 'upside' to all of this rubbish being put onto computers.
mrs k
Mrs K, if you believe the politicians, all the databases will prevent terrorism, prevent ID fraud, stop illegal immigrants, and help the co-ordination between child protection services to protect and aid vulnerable children. And all the CCTV cameras are supposed to make us safer but of course if that were true, we would have the lowest crime rate in the world!
ReplyDeleteMaureen
ReplyDeleteI sometimes believe policticians on the grounds they cannot get it wrong all the time.
But this I do suscribe to:
The Golden Age of Liberty. Rafael Behr in the Observer, page 32 - Sunday 15th March 2009
Rafael Behr: Never mind the doom-mongers – the people of this country have never enjoyed such freedom
I am not that au fait with links - but have a read please, and hopefully a wry smile.
mrs K
Maybe its the Brit optomistic in me - we really just let them get on with it - till it gets up our noses.
Mrs K, I found the link to the article you mention:
ReplyDeleteThe Golden Age of liberty is now
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/15/civil-liberties-dancing-lughnasa-freedom
I found it to be an interesting read but I have to say I disagree with his blinkered views. And I couldn't help but notice most of the comments by other readers of the article also disagree.
I would like to be more optimistic about the way British society is headed but the way the government keeps chipping away at our right to privacy and our civil liberties, makes it very difficult indeed.