General Chat

It seems to me that here in the UK our liberties are continously being eroded, am I wrong?

We cant walk our dogs where we want.
We cant smoke where we want (not even on an open railway station platform)
We have to be interviewed for our first passport to see if we are going to be allowed one
Our rubbish is sifted to ensure that we recycle - we can be fined if it isnt (we are even going to be forced to store waste food for re-cycling)
We are governed by a party with an unelected Prime Minister
CCTV follows our every move
We have to pay for a state licence to watch TV even if we only use the equipment for watching satelite channels and playing DVD's
We are forbidden to purchase 100W light bulbs (soon to be followed by 60W, 40W and Halogen spots)
Our police service seem to believe that they are a police force
Our councils make us apply for planning permission to do almost anything (pruning trees, putting up a fence etc) but do everything themselves without asking us.
The Government decides what is bad for us then taxes it to the extreme to encourage us to cut down whilst still reaping in the billions in tax our luxuries attract
We are told what to eat and what to drink
Our school children are forbidden from competative sports in case it upsets the less sporty
School uniforms are very often compulsary and must be purchased from the approved school shop
We are told we cant take photos of our own children at nativity plays (thats if they are permitted)

Only minor things perhaps, but they add up and I for one am starting to feel uncomfortable

I wouldn 't worry too much Col, after all, you still have the freedom to put this post on here, and not be taken in the night to a Siberian Labour camp, never to be seen again.

I'll agree we are becoming a Nanny state, we can't say certain things in case it upsets a minority (usually not even affected by what we are saying, but make it their business to be upset on someone else's behalf, and that someone else couldn't give a damn what we said LOL)

Yes our freedom to make choices for ourselves is being slowly eroded, and this seems to have got worse still under Gordon Brown, but I don't blame governments, I blame do-gooders who want us all to live their pious lives, and be the same as them.

THE LATEST DECREE:

ITN reports:

Plans are being considered which could see people fined up to £500 for failing to recycle food scraps.
It could mean a slop bucket - or a kitchen caddy - is issued to every home across the UK.
Under the scheme, supported by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, councils would be able to introduce fines of between £80 and £500.
The plan was first suggested by Mr Benn earlier this summer. He said it was ridiculous to keep on dumping biodegradable waste which could be burned for energy or processed for biofuel.
Defra is officially consulting on the plan to bring in a landfill ban on food waste.
It is up to councils how to bring in the new system, but many will choose to threaten households with fines if they fail to comply.

Col,

Your absolutely right we are beginning to live in a Communist State !!

But surely supermarket and big business dictatorship is causing food waste?

Take veg for isntance. A busy mum, with two kids in tow, wheeling her trolley round Tesco, needs carrots. Does she take her time and pick them from the loose pile, therefore only taking what she needs? No she doesn't, she takes the pre-packaged ones, in plastic bags, which will sweat quickly and go rotten within a couple of days, even when you open the bag as soon as they are home....and, Oh look! It's a BOGOF! Let's get two, save some money.....yeah right.

With regard to food waste, a reduction in packaging on pre-cooked foods, and a total ban on packaging and BOGOFs on fruit and veg, will quickly reduce waste.

Second, I've been seeing lately, some people will roast a chicken, only cut the breast off for Sunday dinner, and throw the rest away!!!! That's criminal!

Use the leftover meat for cold chicken and pickle, or a curry, or a stew the next day, or put it in a pie, then stew the bones for a lovely real chicken stock, which can be frozen, or made into chicken soup....

What happened to using up leftovers?

If anyone is around who lived in Germany in 1935, perhaps you should ask them if we live in a dictatorship.

I bought 24 100 watt light bulbs this week ....

but no i don't think we are turning into a dictatorship

to take a few of the points

school uniform... that has been the case for the last 40 years at least ( thats from when I went to secondary school )

the only place I couldn't walk my dog where I wanted was a certain part of the beach between March and October...sense not 'restriction'

Don't see the problem with recycling...watched some silly people on tv the other night complaining that putting their bins out once a fortnight spoiled the look of the area....do me a favour! tuts they could have put them out one hour before collection and taken them back in straight away if they were that concerned....I really appreciate the efforts made by my local council to enable me to recycle stuff...especially as i don't have a car .

Yep, good old government for telling us we shouldn't kill ourselves ( or others) by smoking, alchohol and drug abuse and taxing us if we choose to do so... sort of what I tell my child...don't we all? Paternalistic but not dictatorship perhaps.

When someone starts to tell me I can't vote, trade, follow my religion, marry someone of a different colour/ religion. Sit on a park bench or a bus seat at the front ...then I will call it a dictatorship...

Okay Fiona...I accept your point...but I believe we live in a country that ''intstructs us'' rather than 'asks us''

Great news

''I bought 24 100 watt light bulbs this week ....but no i don't think we are turning into a dictatorship''

So just preparing for being told what bulbs you can and cant buy?

I would prefer to buy energy efficient light bulbs from an eco point of view but my eyesight is bad and I think as yet they aren't improved enough for me to be able to use them where I need a decent light ... I realised that when i was trying to turn up black trousers using black cotton. However if I do find some that suit I will be more than happy to use them , I think the ban is premature but not neccessarily 'wrong'.

I am upset as I live in a converted barn and I had to renew my windows this year in WOOD twice as expensive..... I was told by the council that I was not allowed to have PVC ones ,although they look exactly the same isn't that local dictatorship in a small way ?

And its not Listed ....

Well lets ignore all the advice, and carry on using high energy light bulbs, after all, we love paying those huge electricity bills, or replacing the old ones every year...at a cost of course.

Or perhaps we should carry on filling up big holes in the ground with anything and everything, then start complaining when the next landfill site is on our doorsteps, or the toxins leak into the water table poisoning our water supplies.

Or worse still, when there is no more space for landfill and our streets are full of rubbish, flies, rats, disease....remember the dustmans strike and multiply that over a year...how bad do you want it?

I'm a smoker, I have no problem with the ban on smoking in public places...never have. Non smokers have the right to go to the same places as I do without breathing in MY smoke.

I take it you prefer the alternative Colin.

There is no choice to be given. We simply cannot sustain our current lifestyle and disposable society, it's suicide.

Have to agree with Rose's sentiments on this one.

We have a green bin for recycling and a brown bin for everything else, a blue bin for glass and a brown kitchen caddy with biodegradable bags from the council.

We put out the brown bin and the caddy out weekly and the green one plus garden rubbish out every second week.

Most people here stick their bins at the bottom of their drives in the evening and as we get an early collection, take them back in before they go to work the next day.

The glass collection and kitchen caddies were trialed in our area and after a few months a chap from the council actually called personally to ask what we thought of the idea.

We were very satisfied and believe it is being extended to cover the whole Borough.

Aileen xxx

I sympathise with you over the expense Marilyn...but the point is surely, that we can all vote councils in and out, and governments... if it WERE a dictatorship, we couldn't do that and chances are we wouldn't even have the homes we have, because our faces/ politics/ religion might not 'fit' .

Local planning rules might be annoying or even down right ridiculous...but we would all be complaining if there were none and our neighbours built a monstrosity next door and we could do nothing about it?

Please Teresea...dont start an argument

''take it you prefer the alternative Colin''

Thats not what the thread was about...please read waste disposal options are just one subject I mentioned and erm several medical and enviromental opionins are divided on long life light bulbs with many favouring the old type

I wasn't starting an argument Colin, though I was giving my honest opinion on something I feel very strongly about.

However, if my having a different opinion means I'm out to cause trouble, then I'll leave it there....

Rose I'm 100% behind Planning Regulations ,

I just found this particular planning rule way over the top to be told that PVC is not acceptable as WOOD !!

I hope they last longer than me !!

I didn't see Teresa as arguing, just entering a debate by giving her opinion.

Lightbulbs I'm not convinced by......yet. Recycling is a good thing although I don't think fines should be automatically imposed, people can, and do, make mistakes. School uniforms are a good thing, means you don't have one lot of kids bullying another because the other can't afford the designer stuff.

Yes, we do live in a nanny state and there are times that I think the government should leave us to make our own choices. However, we don't live in a dictatorship.

If anybody is out there still thinks this is a free country, just try not paying your taxes,the establishment will be on to you faster than it takes to say, BO!"£$cks

Prior to Gordon Brown there have been 12 unelected prime ministers, in this country, since 1902. Interestingly 8 of them were Conservatives.

My mother had to buy my, bog-standard comprehensive, school uniform from an approved shop in 1972.

My local council has yet to sift through my rubbish to see if I have put the recyclable materials in with the non-recyclable.