The One That Knows It Is The Beginning Of The End. . .

Amazing but true, there is other news other than the death of Michael Jackson, and one can't help but wonder if it is being used to bury bad news or objectionable policies.

Here's a prime example of a thoroughly objectionable policy:

About 1,000 homes and businesses will be affected by security and policing arrangements for this year's Labour Party conference in Brighton.

During the conference, officers will visit households and companies nearby to confirm identities of people there.

What the flying fuckety-fuck? I'd like to know first of all, what powers Sussex police have to go knocking on peoples' doors and demand to see ID of the person opening it. Setting aside the fact that it is a disgusting attack on the liberties of those being doorstepped, what if the person living there has no driving licence or passport? No, that is not an argument in favour of an ID Card scheme, it is an argument in favour of the State and the police minding their own fucking business.

It gets better:

Supt Grenville Wilson said that hosting the conference at a time of international tension inevitably involved heightened security.

But he said: "We are keen to stress that there is no specific threat to the conference."

However that won't stop him sending his officers to make sure that everyone knows they're on a yellow card anyway. I'm surprised he doesn't put a Police Community Surveillance Officer in every home to make sure the residents are sat quietly with their hands on the table in full view for the duration.

Where the hell do these fuckers get off?

During the event from 27 September to 1 October, officers will seal off the area around the Brighton Centre, Hilton Metropole and Grand hotels and Russell Road NCP car park to form a secure "island" site.

Perhaps if this Government hadn't acted like such a bunch of arse-clowns for the last decade, hadn't shat on everyone, nannied us, hectored us and had actually listened to what we were saying, then they wouldn't need to seal off huge swathes of Brighton to prevent people trying to kill them.

But security is security, and don't you dare try to argue about it. Don't you dare try to question the authorities. Tell us who you are, why you are sat there in your own home, and what it is you intend to do whilst you're there.

This is an absolute disgrace, to spy on people whilst they walk down the street minding their own business is bad enough. Now they are sending people round to our houses, and they don't even have the decency to attempt to do it covertly. Fuckers. Fucking fuckers.

I wonder what would happen to this poor old bugger if he produced a repeat performance this year?

The One That Says 'Ooooh, They've Done It Now'. . .

I can't work out if this government is actually barking mad or really wants to lose the next election. Such is the rate at which things designed to piss people off are trotted out, that I'm starting to think it is the latter, there must be something big and very very bad 18 months down the road, so bad that not even Labour with their sociopathic desire for power want to be a part of it.

It really is the only conclusion to draw. Can they really be so divorced from reality that they think telling people that their Facebook, Bebo and MySpace activities must be monitored will win them support? The anti-crime and anti-terror excuse is pathetic. 'Osama Bin Laden is planning a fiery death for the infidel, lol' 'Fingers Freddie is turning over the NatWest tonight! OMFG!' No, I don't think so.

In the grand scheme of things this is a tiny issue, especially when records of all our phone calls, emails and browsing history will be kept, just in case we do something wrong, even if that something wrong is perfectly legal now. However what hasn't happened thus far is any real coverage in the MSM, there's been a couple of flickers (or should that be flickr? Sorry) but nothing to really suggest that this might, you know, be a bad thing.

Well, look at the comments on the Pravda article about this story, as I write this there's only one comment which doesn't have a problem with this. We'll see how Pravda's moderation policy balances this out.

Have Labour learned nothing from the last few months? A very large number of the votes picked up by Obama in the American election were won in the blogosphere and on social networking sites. As each General Election here becomes more like a Presidential election you'd have thought that the Labour spin doctors would have realised that cyberspace is the new battleground, not against terrorism but for votes.

How many people between 18-30 turn out to vote? How many from that same age range use social networking, blogging and email as one of their primary methods of communication? The internet has always been about liberty, it empowers the media consumer and gives the individual a voice. In the case of this blog, it may only be that 20 or so people a day hear my voice, but if every one of those 20 people speak to 20 more people themselves and so forth, that is a huge number of people.

Recently the outcry amongst social networking site users about the rights to uploaded photographs caused these sites to back down. Internet users have real power, perhaps that is what really scares the government, there's no boozy paper editor with a skeleton or two in the cupboard that can be leant on or manipulated, instead there is a large collection of individuals who will say and write what they want, not what they are told.

I'll tell you this, you can piss around with recording people's itinerary when they go abroad, put chips in their bin and so on, but piss around with their Facebook and they'll mobilise in their tens of thousands; you're screwed.

Labour, you are so screwed. But please, tell me, why are you doing it on purpose?

The One That Will Not Be Going For A Pint In Aberdeen. . .

I'm really at a loss on this one. I'm so flabbergasted that I'll just quote the leading text of this news story from Al-Beeb:

Pub-goers in Aberdeen are facing a drugs test before entering bars as part of a crackdown by Grampian Police.

So, is this some kind of sobriety test akin to the ones we see used by American cops on the roadside?

Well, no.

Officers in the force will be the first in Scotland to use an Itemiser - a device which can detect traces of drugs from hand swabs in a matter of seconds.

I'm not sure how that would effect somebody working in a dispensing chemist or a pharmaceutical firm. But let's see what else is going on. . .

The test is voluntary,

Oh, so that doesn't seem too bad then, you can tell them to piss off in the nicest possible way then. . .

. . . but customers will be refused entry if they do not take part.

Of for the love of God. What is wrong with these people? Look, I don't like drugs, I don't use drugs (yeah, yeah booze and baccy, but you know) and think that people who deal in drugs should be cast into a dark pit of their own filth. But you cannot just blanket target everybody, just because they might have traces of drugs on them. Despite saying in the report that people could be searched if they return an amber reading on the machine, the very act of taking hand swabs, in my book, constitutes a search. It is another example of everything that is wrong with this country. Where are the reasonable grounds or suspicion? Is entering the pub grounds for suspicion that you are there solely to deal in drugs? How do the landlords feel about this? Has a similar line been taken with them as it has with his punters? Have they been told 'It is voluntary, but if you don't do it, we'll suspend your licence.'

This is the worst, most cowardly way of doing business and I'd love to know what the effects of this programme are on the pubs' takings. I wouldn't have drugs on me. I would object to the search on the basis of my own personal liberty to not be searched trying to enter a pub, and so walk away. I would also be thinking to myself 'this pub obviously has a drugs problem, I'll go elsewhere as I don't want to be in there.'

Sometimes I get so angry. . .