The continued Rise of the Police State.

Okay, I admit first of all that we aren't in a full on Police state yet, because I'm able to type this and not face arrest (although I don't rule out surveilance), but we are perilously close.

Last weekend gave us a glimpse of the thought processes at the top levels of government. We got to hear about the lies, the bullying, the arrogance and the refusal to accept any of this was wrong. We've heard during the week that the supposedly free press were cajoled into toeing the party line in order to stay privvy to inner machinations of government. We heard earlier in the year the Police stating there would be a "summer of rage" and then coming tooled up for the G20 protests. We saw an innocent man killed and others assaulted during those protests. We saw last year the abolition of basic liberties during the Kingsnorth power station protest and this week the arrest of people about to protest at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station before they'd even done anything remotely illegal. We saw Damien Green, a member of parliament arrested and his office in the houses of parliament searched for no other reason than his revelations embarrassed the government. Now we hear that Shami Chakrabarti has been targeted during the search of Damien Green's computer. I wonder how many other champions of liberty are under state surveillance? There are rumblings of internet censorship, using the usual weasel words of "protect the children" to disguise what is an attack on the most democratic of media, the internet. Laws to regulate and surveil social networking sites and the possible extension to blogs.
We've seen new laws making it illegal to photograph Police officers. We see increasing interference from the state in more aspects of our lives. We see the government pushing on with ID cards, despite the majority of the country being against them.

We also have the fact this untrustworthy government implemented a law (the civil contingencies act) that allows them to suspend democracy under certain circumstances. This in the supposed mother of democracy.

What is becoming apparrent is that for the majority, things look normal, as long as they toe the line. Step away from that line (or it appears even just think about it) and it appears the full force of Police surveillance and brutality will be brought into use against you.

Are we in a Police state? Well, for the majority of us, not quite. But its increasingly looking like an illusion, because I for one can certainly see the dark shroud of totalitarianism surrounding us, closing in.

How long will it be before its too late for the majority of us to do anything to stop the rise of a Police state?

Update:

You can add vote rigging to that list too, given there have been several high profile cases and prosecutions in the past and two high profile cases only this week where favoured candidates have allegedly been pushed into place by the PLP ahead of local constituency parties. Robert Mugabe would be proud of such a record.