I hope you are right about the authorities (in general) using common sense about this. My concern is that common sense seems to be a precious and rare commodity these days. Given that I am about twice you age I can remember times (no doubt your parents can too) when common sense was often applied, though perhaps less obviously than in the generations before. And so it goes, generation by generation.

The sad thing is that it has been, in general, my generation that has encouraged and overseen the erosion of trust in the public by those who would rule. And vice versa.

That these matters are now coming to a head,, in a country that is usually extremely supine until backed against a wall, may be telling us something.

I read today that the government now wants every pub, off-licence (are there any left?) and drinks sales counter (so every till in every supermarket?) to be specifically equipped with a cctv camera and for the records that makes to be kept for 60 days. By Law. For the benefit of the ‘police’ in case they might use the evidence should some sort of violence occur. It might allow them to trace the perpetrator buying some booze. Is that really worth the effort, cost and intrusion? Are members of the police force and others covered by the ‘anti-terrorist’ legislation to be allowed to ask for the cameras to be turned off?

There are some unpleasant ideas going around at the moment. The sort that no one would have thought possible a decade or so ago. Even if dismissed they seem to come back time and again. If htey take 20 years to come about, as they may, it won’t be of too much practical concern to me I suspect. But you , and my daughters who are maybe a year or two younger than you, will experience the full effects and carry the full costs, societal and emotional as well as fiscal. So it is good, in my opinion, that these observations are coming into the wider public domain before they have been made case law through legal process.

Of course these observations may all come to naught if the current financial crises develops into an even earlier event of social disharmony and cultural dissolution. Heaven knows what the results of that might be.

In all cases it is good that these matters come, eventually, to public attention.

Apologies for all the philosophical stuff. I used to think that things would just work and and stupidity would, in the main, fail to prosper. Now I fear the opposite is true across the world.

Hmm, have a great weekend!

Grant

This story makes me very worried about the use of racial profiling. “For the new offence to be committed the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practicable assistance to a terrorist.” This makes me wonder if my persian husband and I (both amateur photographers) would arise suspicion when taking tourist shots of “Bobbies” or the Queens Guard if we were to travel to England.