My adopted country, The United Kingdom, has given the world the Magna Carta (the principle of equality under the law), Habeas Corpus, Presumption of innocence, Trial by Jury, an Independent Judiciary and representative Parliamentary Democracy. These are great gifts to human freedom but this immense legacy are slowly being eroded.
I feel that this country seems to be sleep walking into a police state. People think that the 42 days' detention are only for foreigners and suspected terrorists. It is not true.
It can be used against anyone who challenges the authorities, whoever that may be. Not true you may say, but already we are seeing laws which have been enacted for reasons of "national security" and the protection of the public from acts of terrorism, (The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000) being abused by local authorities who use covert surveillance techniques to follow people who seek no more than to place their child into a local school, and for people who overfill their dustbins, or place them outside too early, to be spied upon by local authorities.
The more powers are placed in the hands of the State, the greater the chance of these abuses continuing and becoming ever more commonplace.
Terrorists are a threat but they should not be used as an excuse to develop a Big Brother state. It's a bit off to being told that in order to defend our country we must give up our rights. How draconian? I do hope the wonderful inhabitants of this country realised this.
Phew...Breathe in/out very slo--w--ly.
The fuel strike strikes again. We joined the queue at Asda, Walsgrave to top Benzy up. At 114.9ppl, it was the cheapest. I remembered taking a photograph 2 years ago somewhere in Scotland of a garage that charges £1.00. It was so shocking at that time. I wonder how much it is now.
Apart from that, I have been a couch potato. I'm squeezing my household duties in between the football matches. Sad huh? My favourite game was when Holland kicked France out of EURO 2008 and Croatia stunned favourites Germany. My neighbours must think I'm really loco :-).
Today, we gave moral support to 3
Malaysian students who performed at the Positive Image Multicultural Festival. It was a pity that the sound system was a bit off. Kudos to them for having the guts to sing in front of a British crowd, in English and Malay.
The annual Festival now in its 14th year celebrates the cultural diversity of the city. We took part in a quiz and I wrote something in Malay to be included in a collage of different languages that are spoken in the city. There was Urdu, Mandarin, Arabic, Polish, German, etc. I should have written something in Welsh...
And to end the day, I made a plum cake. It was a success. I was quite apprehensive cos I could see the batter rising rapidly and was afraid that it might overflow. Luckily, it stayed on. Bonn Appetit.
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