IDENTITY -Help!!!

[Roger O]

Would you drive into Germany with no passport ?

Helen is aghast:


Not ******** likely! Not even with a passport.

Sorry to "pry" but any special reason for Helen's reaction?
The Germany today is not the one of 60 years ago.. "the sins of the fathers" and all that. I have some very good German friends in Lufthansa.

[Chris]

I like Germans too (broad generalisation!) - although I find the southerners, especially from Bayern, much easier to gel with than the dour northeners.
It's strange how a single experience can colour ones perceptions for life.
I have a friend who is a keen angler but who is fanatically opposed to fox hunting; not because of any sympathy for the fox, but because a "toff in a red coat" was rude to him once on a narrow country lane.
In my case, the relevant incident happened many years ago, when, as an impoverished 17 year old, I purchased a bottle of beer and asked for 5 glasses since there were five of us, and we could only afford one bottle between us... this was at the Taschach Haus, a large climbing hut in the Otztal. A party of German alpinists from Munchen-Schwabing looked on askance for a few moments, before buying us all a beer, and also a plate of lovely noodle soup each. Despite my exhortations, they would not give us an address so that we might repay then when we had the wonga to do so.
You don't forget kindness like that in a hurry.

PS A good video about the British ID card:

http://www.no2id.net/TakeJane/

PPS Yes, things are very, very bad in Britain which is why I'm getting out, while I still can.
Some years ago a network of blue camera towers began to appear on every trunk road. We were reassured that these were there simply to measure traffic flow so as to make our lives easier, and that even though they took car number plates, this information would not be retained.
(Note how every bit of oppressive nonsense is sold to the gullible using benefit language, in much the same way that Goebbels used to talk about the Jews being taken into custody for their own protection.)
Lo and behold - within a few weeks they will record every number plate of every vehicle that uses every road, and this information will be stored forever on......... you've guessed it........ a giant (and insecure) database.
Well what a surprise - surely those politicians wern't telling porky pies all those years ago, were they?

[polremy]

Would you drive into Germany with no passport ?

Helen is aghast:


Not ******** likely! Not even with a passport.

been trying to work out what word was starred.
too many letters for all the gros mots i could think of.

[sue and paul]

Would you drive into Germany with no passport ?

Helen is aghast:


Not ******** likely! Not even with a passport.

been trying to work out what word was starred.
too many letters for all the gros mots i could think of.

Well, 8 stars could have been 'blinking' or 'blooming' or 'flipping'...

[john]

In the form that Brown and his fascist cronies envisage,Roger, I am VEHEMENTLY against the issuing of UK identity cards. If they took the form as used in France (ie just a paper document with a photo) then I'd have no problem. But,as Webdoc,Chris etc point out it goes a HELL of a lot further than that.

I am astounded that there has not been more of an outcry about the plethora of surveillance cameras now in the UK. Trouble is,they seem to be starting up here in France now. What a GROSS interference in privacy/civil liberties.

It's the old story about governments thinking they know best and telling us what to do. As someone who has always railed against and ignored those who claim to be in "Authority" over me, I cannot understand people's supine acceptance of this.

[Roger O]

Sounds as if there'll soon be groups of people all over the UK hunkered down in bunkers as in some parts of the US - the socalled patriots who are against government interference in private lives.

The big difference is between the gun laws in the States and in the UK.

[Chris]

"Hunkered down in bunkers.." - you must be joking!
They would all miss Coronation Street, and Britains got Talent, and Eastenders, and the lottery, and the footie etc etc.

[Owens88]

I am astounded that there has not been more of an outcry about the plethora of surveillance cameras now in the UK. Trouble is,they seem to be starting up here in France now. What a GROSS interference in privacy/civil liberties.

Hmm

Here is an alternative viewpoint. What I do in public I expect to be seen. If I am picking my nose, or worse, so be it. If street surveillance helps stop crime (I stress IF) then the effect is positive.


It is not the data capture that is wrong, it is the potential for misuse. So, for instance, you are repeatedly caught on camera hanging in and about outside bookies mid afternoon. Supposition you have no job or are a night worker. You are seen to be gambling, supposition you have disposable income , or are a 'wrong-un' stealing the family tax credit.

You apply for a job in security. Should these records be available to the would-be employer ?


Oversimplified I know but.......?

John

[Roger O]

"Hunkered down in bunkers.." - you must be joking!
They would all miss Coronation Street, and Britains got Talent, and Eastenders, and the lottery, and the footie etc etc.

There's all kinds of weird stuff on the net about bunkers (including that of Tom Cruise) but do you know about
"Secret Leeds"?
http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/PrintM ... hreadID=58

(Kate must be "in the know"??)

[Chris]

Yes, there are a great many of these underground structures in the UK and elsewhere and more than a few enthusiasts who visit and catalogue them. Some are situated in Wales, for example the disused mustard gas and sarin plant near Mold. I remember, as a lad, a terrifying and very dangerous 10 hour exploration trip through a maze of old slate mines above Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Most are WW1 or industrial in origin although a few are genuinely puzzling and seem to date from the last months of WW2; these were constructed in secret to house autonomous units of an intended British resistance to Nazi occupation. They were never marked on any map and the locations were known only to the local unit; some of these have still not been found, I suspect, but no one can know for certain.

In any event, none of them, to the best of knowledge, have Sky TV, so are unlikely to be occupied again.

[Chris]

PS the problem with CCTV is that it has been shown on many occasions NOT to reduce crime.

I live near Rhyl (pour mes pechés) which, on a Saturday night, is the nearest thing I've ever seen to hell on earth, with universal drunkenness, violent assaults, stabbings, and fighting in the streets, pools of blood, vomit, urine and worse, drug taking, scandalous public sexual behaviour, smashing of shop windows - and a large police presence including mounted officers trying in vain to maintain some order.

It is also one of the most intensivley CCTV surveilled places in the world with a "state of the art" CCTV control room on which millions of taxpayers money was wasted.

[Roger O]

Wow, if it goes on like that, one can expect to see a few pillars of salt around the flattened area quite soon?