Brown's typical Big Brother mentality

I DON'T know whether Gordon Brown and his government are simply obtuse, deliberately calculating or a combination of both.

The decision to extend the scheme whereby microchips are installed into wheelie bins is a classic example.

It was spelt out to Mr Brown by one of the participating councils in the first trial run that the technology was unreliable, but he brushed aside objections in order to extend the experiment.

This is typical of new Labour and its Big Brother mentality.

It cannot resist scamming money out of people in every conceivable manner.

New, often incomplete technology is the conduit by which it achieves its twin obsessive objectives of intrusive snooping and tax-raising.

We are being bombarded with a raft of measures that are the reverse of libertarian and a direct assault on basic freedoms, many of them masquerading under the spurious guise of security.

In fact, Brown delivered a portentous speech on this very issue in defence of the authoritarian legislation that he is enacting.

He has more rabbit than Watership Down on the subject.

If there is an enhanced terrorist threat and security is compromised, then poor governance and a slavish adherence to US foreign policy, particularly in relation to the illegal war in Iraq and the neocolonial crusade in Afghanistan, is one of the contributory factors.

MARTIN PHILLIPS
Mynydd Isa