What would Britain look like if the Nazis had prevailed? Well, arguably not too different from what it looks like today?
We are looking at finally introducing a bill of basic rights, while the Brits seem to be meekly surrendering theirs? Or indeed, able to even make a phone call, sure in the knowledge that their absolute right to individual privacy is being respected.
Nanny state? Maybe?
But given the ethnic mix and or the subsequent ethnic dominated ghettos, where lawlessness is the common uniting glue? What are the other options?
Most of my British friends, would tell you that Britain is a nation and a place they can no longer recognise, or, that they as native sons and daughters, seem to have less rights than recent migrants, who would have made an absolutely brilliant fifth column, if Britain was involved in another internationalised conflict?
We could do worse than take a good long hard look at the so-called Mother country and the way it is ruled and by who, if only to understand, there's yet another British disease we definitely don't want to import here?
The problem is not CCTV surveillance, or florescent suits per se, but rather, I believe, the gormless control freaks placed in charge of it all, who'se only response to any evidence of social discord, is even more draconian and or entirely counter productive measures?
And if that's bad, just look at the dog's breakfast mess they have made of the economy, in far worse shape than the economy they inherited and heading for another Great Depression?
Simply because those same control freaks? Somehow seem to believe in Austerity? All that that actually achieves is a much smaller economic pie and considerably more economic hungry mouths to fed? It simply doesn't work and the very last time the conservative "fix" was applied, it resulted in the Great Depression! Rhrosty.

We bring it upon ourselves, of course. Given the choice between self-sufficiency, self-reliance and self-motivation, and having all our needs attended to by the "gumment", we vote en masse for the latter. How many politicians set up their shingle for policies that involve individuals taking responsibility for their own lives? They'd be laughed off the stage.

But any significant difference between the nannyness of the UK and Australia is difficult to discern. Even the example cited in Ben Jellis' article - the one that got him thinking about the whole nanny business - is part of our own nanny furniture:

"It was the real-time footage on a screen in the red bus that ultimately did it for me. I had been living in England, happily enough, for six months. But in that instant I'd had enough. As camera angles flashed by, I realised there must have been at least eight security cameras on the bus. Looking for what? I decided then, this bus contained the ultimate proof that England might have gone just a little safety mad."

Ben was probably on a double-decker, which would account for the eight. Our buses in Sydney are single-deckers, and have at least four. And while we may not yet have the same number of street cameras, they will come.

I suspect we might not need quite so many rooftop missile-launchers, though.

For Chris, it "is about personal responsibility, personal choice, individual decisions and individual freedom, things which the British sacrificed a long time ago, and which, sadly, it takes about two days to realise."

I suspect that Chris actually made his judgement about the UK before he ever went there. Chris is one of the true believers adhering to an old-fashioned individualist ideology. Because it isn't about It isn't a matter of socialism or individualism anymore. There is enough evidence from biology and psychology to make it clear that human beings are both individualists and social beings; we need to be part of a group as well as to be free to make our own choices.

Both socialism and individualism are discredited as utopian systems that do not allow for the reality of human nature. What we need now are new ideas.

It is not helpful for people to continue to believe that there is one way and one way only that people can and should live together; Chris' values are not universal; will never work for all types of people. We need to talk possibilities not continue to advocate failed and flawed ideas that have no support from modern science.

I'm wondering if Chris would be equally critical of US society which is by no means a paradise for all, despite the emphasis there, on those individualistic values.

What would Britain look like if the Nazis had prevailed?
Rhosty,
The Allies must have been kicking themselves for the past 40 years for interfering & causing so much misery.
But they don't learn do they ?

"Mollydukes" is wrong. I'm not a "true believers adhering to an old-fashioned individualist ideology." In fact, I'm not even a false believer.

She (apologies if somehow you are a 'he') is correct "that human beings are both individualists and social beings; we need to be part of a group as well as to be free to make our own choices." But isn't this what I'm saying?

Okay, so the article doesn't mention social interaction, but I'm not really sure how I would have worked that in. That humans are social beings was, you know, not really relevant! But show me where I deny it. As for making their own choices, that IS the point, and I think I make the point that the nanny state generally restricts that.

But the wider nanny state actually restricts BOTH of the elements of humanity that Mollydukes speaks of. It restricts individual choices, obviously, but also restricts our social choices - how, and where, and with whom we associate. It even dictates - as I have shown - how society reacts when one of its own is suffering and needs help, and whether or not people are allowed to make their own choice to assist.

I gave up some years ago, I was appalled that Australians were content to have their individual rights subjugated, it appears to be the path they are happy to walk. I had to step off the path, I emigrated. I find it incredibly interesting to be in a relatively lawless country like Cambodia, loving it in every way. My new country would be much better if it's people had access to basic healthcare and education but that aside, I love their freedoms. Geeze, I cycle without a helmet, how very daring of me ;)

Unfortunately lots of "Aid" is tied to warped western morals, so you see the insidious trampling of their culture as they aspire to be as asinine as we are in the West.