BOYCOTTING BRITAIN AS A BLOW FOR FREEDOM

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Sam Smith

Reading of the latest paranoid British plans to investigate every
passenger traveling in Britain save on foot, bikes or cars brings forth
the thought that a practical and perhaps effective approach to
protesting the growing assault on individual rights in the UK and the
United States would be a global boycott of British products.

Why not American ones? For a number of reasons:

- As the latest bizarre travel rules indicate, Britain is actually ahead
of the U.S. in dumping its traditional freedoms.

- As a small country, with fewer products, it would easier to organize
and promote a boycott. Since it would more easily be effective, it would
also be more easily noticed, including by those in power in the U.S.

- While the French helped us win our best war (the Revolution) and tried
to keep us out of two of our worst ones (Vietnam and Iraq), the British
have helped ruin the United States through such means as Margaret
Thatcher's advice to Ronald Reagan and Tony Blair puppy dog support of
George Bush. The Brits clearly owe us one.

While such a boycott might not prove practical, it is certainly
something civil liberties groups around the world ought to consider.
There could, of course, be exceptions - such as for the movies and music
of anti-war, pro-democracy artists.

Protests have become highly predictable, traditional and easily
countered by the state. Even if a British boycott is not the answer, it
is the sort of idea activists for freedom and democracy should be
thinking about - ere protect becomes as dull and regimented as
everything else.

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ANOTHER REASON NOT TO VISIT BRITAIN

DAILY MAIL, UK - By 2014 every one of the predicted 305 million
passenger journeys in and out of the UK will be logged, with details
stored about the passenger on every trip.

The scheme will apply to every way of leaving the country, whether by
ferry, plane, or small aircraft. It would apply to a family having a day
out in France by Eurotunnel, and even to a yachtsman leaving British
waters during the day and returning to shore.

The measure applies equally to UK residents going abroad and foreigners
traveling here.

The information will be stored for as long as the authorities believe it
is useful, allowing them to build a complete picture of where a person
has been over their lifetime, how they paid and the contact numbers of
who they stayed with. . .

For every journey, security officials will want credit card details,
holiday contact numbers, travel plans, email addresses, car numbers and
even any previous missed flights.

The information, taken when a ticket is bought, will be shared among
police, customs, immigration and the security services for at least 24
hours before a journey is due to take place.

Anybody about whom the authorities are dubious can be turned away when
they arrive at the airport or station with their baggage.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id
=493912&in_page_id=1770


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