Angus Abranson (angusabranson) wrote,
Angus Abranson

Repost: I remember when England was free

I'm reposting this from John's (oldson) LJ. I know I have a few teachers amongst my readers so if you can shed any light on this - has it happened at your school yet, etc - that'd be great. This is for everyone who has kids, who will have kids in the future or who generally believes in an open and free country without Big Brother tracking your every move...

It still amazes me that we actually have a so-called 'Labour' government in power yet they have done more to erode our civil liberties and freedoms than any Conservative government ever did...

I remember when you could brain a burglar for breaking into your house with a knife and not fear police prosecution

I remember when children respected their elders

I remember when "I'll tell your dad" was enough to terrify any child out of doing anything wrong.

I remember when politeness was not a virtue but a requirement.

I remember when children could walk freely on the streets without fear.

I remember when young people helped old people cross the road

I remember when trick or treat just meant getting a biscuit for free and not demanding money with menaces

I remember when minorities only existed in maths

I remember when marriage was forever

I remember when schools were places of learning

I remember when the state was something that worked for us

I remember freedom

I wonder now if my son ever will.

Maybe you've all heard of it, I don't know, but there's a new system going around the schools now, children being fingerprinted for use on the schools computers, all in the name of advancement. Here, let me give you an example of this, as of wednesday this week, the school will no longer accept money for school dinners, instead, what must happen is this.

1: The child brings in their dinner money and using their fingerprint, pays the money into the cash machine on the school premises
2: When the child wishes to pay for their food, they take whatever food they want to the counter and pay for it using their fingerprint, the relevant amount is taken from their account and the food is theirs.
3: when their account runs low, they must put more money in to top it up.

Now, I'm old fashioned, I know this, and what this sounds like is adding in another process to the measure of taking the dinner money and GIVING IT TO THE DINNER LADIES. I could be wrong, and I'm willing to admit it if I am, but for this to happen, they had to have taken my sons fingerprints, without my consent or knowledge, and this they did, they informed me after it had been done, and they assured us that these fingerprints would be applied to a database for use in the school system. My son, being trusting and young, had no problem with this, after all, why would he, what possible harm could come of this?

I remember when england was free

My son now has an ID card, with name, date of birth, and reference details, together with a number for the national health line, although there is no indication of what this number is for.

I know what it's for.

If any member of the legal professions wishes to do so, they can use this number to find out all the various details about my son, including the fact that he's mildly autistic, including the fact that he's had no mum, and including the fact that his dad is massively overprotective of him.

This information will never be used for any purposes other than school related projects.

What if its not?

What if a prospective employer decides to check up on the employees once in a while to see if they had a drug problem when they were younger, or if they were abused when they were in care, or anything they bloody well like, not real hard to do, and as for them saying that the encoded fingerprints can't be used for law enforcement reasons because they're no longer fingerprints, well here's a thought, they had to have the fingerprint to encode it, what's to prevent them just keeping the fingerprint in the enforcement files.

I remember when england was free

Job Done, twenty years from now, you have the entire adult population on record because you got them when they were 12, I agree with the policy of nothing to fear if nothing to hide, however, I also understand privacy, and I understand choice, and I understand that you get fingerprinted when you commit a crime, I got fingerprinted years ago when I committed a crime, and yes, I was a child, 14 at the time, but I had to commit a crime before they got my fingerprints, why should my son, innocent of all things, have to have the same indignity?

Progress, yes, police state, no

I remember when england was free

Tomorrow I go to the school and see what they have to say about this, I suspect that I will not be satisfied by their answers. So I take this thought, it seems there's a website about this

Spread the word, if you have kids, you owe it to them, if you don't have kids, do it for mine, do it for your friends, let people know what things are being done without consent or approval, because if they (the faceless few, the ones who think up this s***) get away with this one, then they'll think of something else, and something else, and something else. The freedom that I remember as a child will be an afterthought to those who are my age in twenty years time, and once one liberty is gone, another will go, and another, till a line is drawn in the sand and someone steps forwards and says no further. This country has always been a place of freedom, a place where help would be given to those who need it, and yes, we've committed our share of the wrong in the world, but my god...

I remember when england was something to be proud of

So here I am, here's my line

No further

This is John Dodd, Invictus, and goodnight England, wherever you are

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