Subversive thoughts about life in the UK
The database state - refuse to be numbered, go to jail
The database that the government are planning to use to poke their nose into the affairs of every UK resident is far more evil than the actual identity cards themselves. See the anti-ID card web site for more details.Arthur Chappell wrote some fictional horror scenarios which give a terrifying look into the very near future. Unfortunately these are no longer available on-line. He has made them available in his book ID CARD UK, but you will have to pay for it.
The route to jail for refusing to produce an ID card on demand will not be direct. A large fine will be imposed. You then go to jail for not paying the fine.
Private email communication - refuse to decrypt, go to jail (RIPA)
As we know, email is not private. It takes umpteen store-and-forward hops across the network before it completes it journey from my machine to yours (and vice versa) and it is in plaintext all the way. But email easily can be made private, using public key cryptography. Unless you live in the UK. The UK have a law called RIPA, the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act, which makes it risky to use techology such as PGP and/or GPG. RIPA gives the government the power to force your private key from you. Refuse and you go to jail for two years. If you tell the other party that communication has now been compromised (the "tipping off" offence) then the jail term is increased to five years. See the scenarios described by Dr C.H.Lindsey for the nasty things in store. One person (an animal rights activist) has already been served with a RIPA decryption notice as of November 2007. See the article at the Register for details.IT consultancy companies - declare a profit, go to jail
Wikipedia has an impartial entry on IR35, for those that have never heard of it. See the PCG (Professional Contractors Group) for the perspective of the independent consultant. See the blog of Mark Pearce for a view that is much closer to my own. Basically, as with most tax laws, non-payment of tax they deem is due results in a jail term (after the usual warnings, threatening letters, etc).You have lost the right to silence, to protest etc
See this article from The Guardian for a list of some of the evil things that Labour have done since 1997.More ranting
If you think this ranting is bad, wait until you see what they have to say at GarbageGate where they rant even more than I do!
Some of the GarbageGate rants are quite old now and tend to be very polically focused. For more general UK ranting that is kept reasonably up to date, see The Yorkshire Ranter. Well I never.
For some milder ranting of mine, see my pet peeves.
