And this is scary

[Cataphract_Of_The_City]

It is ironic how George Orwell was writing specifically about England (1984/Animal Farm) and now England is hell bent on proving him right.

[_Martyr_]

I agree that a certain amount of National Service could be a good idea. I disagree however about the proposed length, and the content. A year is long enough, as far as I know that is what Germany has. There, an entrant must chose between either a Military service (boot camp), or a Civil service (old folks homes, hospitals, youth worker), unless they have some medical excuse. IMO this should be compulsory for ALL youths, male, female, well educated and poorly educated. I know many guys my age from very privileged backgrounds who would have benefited from a scheme like this enormously. Im about the least nationalistic person you're likely to meet, but I do think that it would have a very positive effect on society through the combined individual improvements it would have on the youth, and the actual good works that would come about through their direct involvement (Hospitals, old folks homes etc...).

[Duke of Gloucester]

Of course we already force children to go to school for 11 years (in the UK). If this community service is such a good idea then it should be done during that time rather than adding another year of compulsion. In my experience young people, when given the opportunity, fall over themselves to get involved especially when the activities involve working helping people. (They are not so keen to pick up litter or clear weeds from parks). Give these activities GCSE equivalent points and all schools will want to join in.

If you are talking about military service as the solution, just think about the proplem first: drinking and fighting. Soldiers never do either, of course.

[Lord Winter]

*thanks the founders for having the wisdom of including the fourth addmendment.*

what do they have to hide?

If they're not doing anything wrong of course they should be okay with it. I mean who wouldn't want a camera watching ever single waking hour of your life, from the harmless to the most embaracing. For that matter these cameras are great idea for national security too. Just think of how many "terrorist" we could catch. While were at it why don't we also to use it to help find those giving comfort to the terrorist by spewing these lies that disgrace our troops on the ground. Any sense of disagreement with the government should be considered an crime. Great now we can fainilly stop this spread of lies about the possiable failings of our perfect government.
[/sarcasm]

On a more serious note, let us consult the words of Benjamen Franklin:
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

[rory_20_uk]

So, Franklin was agianst all laws then? Every law cedes some liberty.

Cameras pointing at public areas isn not intruding into every area of people's life. People can choose not to go into the areas, and therefore not get recorded. Of course, you might prefer the added safety of no cameras on buses as this is of course such a personal and embarassing activity to be undertaking.

In fact, thinking about it, Air traffic Control records the position and height of every plane! What an intrusion! Best scrap it - after all we all now know Franklin's quote.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

It's an overused quote, but I'm happy you're happy with your police state.

These kind of actions strike me as the natural outcome of a growing central government, the kind that is naturally socialist. If you are busy looking over your citizen's shoulders to make sure they are doing financially OK, it isn't too much to keep looking over their shoulders for other things.

I'd point and laugh more at you UKers, but this is probably ten to twenty years down the line for us.

And welcome back, JAG.

[rory_20_uk]

Yeah, you're right. How's the Patriot act, by the way? Oh, and I hope that they're not "accidentally" doing any more illegal wire tapping...

Personally I prefer the cameras. At lease we can generally see them as opposed to the police bugging whoever they choose and only apologising if they're caught.

[JAG]

It's an overused quote, but I'm happy you're happy with your police state.

These kind of actions strike me as the natural outcome of a growing central government, the kind that is naturally socialist. If you are busy looking over your citizen's shoulders to make sure they are doing financially OK, it isn't too much to keep looking over their shoulders for other things.

I'd point and laugh more at you UKers, but this is probably ten to twenty years down the line for us.

And welcome back, JAG.

Actually I think it is quite the opposite, rather than coming about because of a socialist state this has come about because of a free market state and an extreme free market state, at that.

Socialism is anything but a police state.