They'll Never Take Our FREEDO... Oh. They Have.

by Iain Lowson

When I was a kid, my mum took me to a CND event called Hands Across Scotland. I remember it well; standing on a country road somewhere, with people from all walks of life, all laughing, joking, chatting. There was a sense of togetherness that brought me out of my normal apprehensive shell. The organisers did what they could in the chaos, and the people all held hands at various times, eventually managing somehow, in the days before mobile phones, to all hold hands at the same point as the others spread across the width of Scotland.

There was one less than fun moment. A sibilant silence ran down the long line of people. A police car drove slowly down, about the speed of a brisk walk. Some turned defiantly to face it, others turned away. There was a ripple of actual fear, and the first stirrings of actual anger. A policeman in the passenger seat, his face grim (no doubt from the muttered abuse directed at him and the authorities he represented), had a large video camera pointed out the car window. They were filming the whole line. All along the line. Cameras across Scotland.

We know now that the authorities used surveillance, both open and secret, and infiltrators to keep an eye on groups like CND. We know now that this was almost innocent compared to how things have become. From Maggie the Monster, through Blair the Butcher, and now Cameron the Basically Incompetent Wet Blanket No Really Who Voted For This Guy, reasons have become excuses have become habit. It seems entirely routine for our government to spy on all its citizens. In the past good reason was needed. Now, all that’s needed is for us to not care any more. They certainly don’t. Reasonable suspicion has been replaced with ‘because we can’.

The people of this country seem to still believe that they can trust the authorities. Former Tory leader Haig, uncomfortably echoing Nazi leadership almost word for word, assured us that the innocent have nothing to fear. Now we know for certain that isn’t the case either. After the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the Metropolitan Police spent more time using infiltrators and other surveillance to try to smear the bereaved family than they did investigating the murderers. Why? Simply put, they had been embarrassed by the coverage of the murder, by the fact that racism ran like blood poisoning through the entire Met.

We know now that the Special Branch sub-group who carried out the infiltration were disbanded. Phew! That’s a relief. Well, no. Not really. A Met-specific group has been replaced by a national organisation. Although the Stephen Lawrence ‘project’ failed, and despite the fact that other infiltrators have been uncovered after having had relationships and even children with those they conned, likely the group had other successes. Ones we’ll perhaps never know about. Sure, some bad guys were likely caught, but the authorities showed a grim, enthusiastic focus less on law and order and far more on suppressing any criticism of the authorities, no matter how valid and important. You might well be right, but God help you if you’re an inconvenient truth.

This was uncovered by whistle-blowers, and presented in such a way that it bypassed the other little trick the authorities have been over using. We’re used to the press being asked not to discuss certain things until a certain point. In court cases, it happens to allow non-prejudicial trail by jury. Now, those same gagging orders are being rolled out to prevent the press from discussing things that might embarrass the authorities. As I write this, The Guardian is the only paper that is actively reporting the UK government’s involvement in spying on, well, pretty much everyone. Our allies (who probably do the same) are furious. To me, the issue is less that the espionage went on, more that it is targeted as wide as it could ever go and that, long after we know about it, the government are trying to lessen the political impact by gagging the press. Think about that for a second – politics is being openly placed above your personal freedoms.

When I look now at Westminster, I can only see a broken, disreputable, dishonest system that has utterly failed. It is no longer fit for purpose. Scandal after scandal has rocked it, and we increasingly see that it’s every party. It’s the Tories, it’s Labour, it’s the… ummmm… oh what were that other lot called? Nah, doesn’t matter. They certainly don’t any more. Where was I? Oh yes – they’re all a sack of lying bastards whose sole aim in life is to feather their own nests and keep the general population fighting against each other over who should win Britain’s Got The Only Way Is Hollyenders.

Something needs to change. At the moment, where we’re heading is a very dark place. The last time things got this bad, it ended in a World War. While that’s unlikely this time, internal strife is not. The authorities like a good riot, as it allows them to be more open about clamping down on the general population, supported by a press who love the sales spikes they get from lurid front covers splashed with pictures of minorities stealing ipods.

Oddly, all this has got me thinking about the opportunity that the Scottish Independence Referendum offers not just Scotland, but the whole of the (shaky) United Kingdom. Westminster needs a kick in the pants. A clear out. The debate (poisonous and abusive though the No Campaign has been throughout) has achieved little. No side really has an advantage. Statistics show both sides to be in the right. That tells me one thing; Scotland would survive going it alone. It wouldn’t be easy, but have you looked around lately? No country has it easy right now. That said, no longer being part of the failed experiment that is Westminster cannot be a bad thing. In fact, I sincerely believe it would be the best thing for all involved.

If nothing else, it would give the folks at GCHQ another foreign nation to spy on.