UK Repression

I was talking to this Croatian writer last night, who was explaining how even if you get busted painting trains out there the maximum penalty you will get is 250 euros, as they just treat it as a minor deviant crime. when i told him i was from London he said "ahh man i hear you guys are really repressed out there. i had'nt really heard it phrased like that before but, when you think about it thats exactly whats going on. Forget the recession, were living in repression.
Not as you might have been taught about it in school, with fascist dictators and the rest, but a modern western repression that may not be news in the states but i feel has defenitely creeped it's way into the UK.
Since the Millenium alot has changed. Security measures have gone through the roof which they claim we need yet all it does is create mass fear and paranoia making it easier for our government to do whatever it likes.
2 million of us turned out to say we dont want war with Iraq, yet our government does not listen and as a result we have an increased threat of terrorism, and seeing as there are thousands of people living in our country that are from the places we have bombed to shit, thats not suprising. So now we know that peaceful protest does not work here anymore and the government doesn't care what we think. And if that was'nt bad enough they then decided we could no longer protest freely when we did'nt like what was going on....instead we now have to apply to the government to get permission in order to try and make a change, and even if we get permission it's quite likely we will just be forced into a corner and kept there for the whole day when trying to make a change.
Nowadays police need no reason to stop, search and interrogate you at random under the "anti terrorism act" section 4 blah blah fuck yourselves. In fact one time when i got a going over in waterloo station on my way to work they simply explained that as i was'nt black or muslim i was simply filling in the gaps so they dont appear rascist. Graffiti is so symbolic of freedom and is a visual act of people trying to take back a bit of civil liberties, which is the only reason i could explain to my Croatian friend as to why the police try and make our lives hell for doing it. We now have a constant stream of young individuals going through the prison system and punished with as much severity as violent robbers.It is important to remember if youre out there painting that you are simply expressing freedom with paint....i know its hard to remember when 10 police come barging into your room and steal your laptop, camera, books, clothes and everything else, leaving nothing but your bed sheets, drag you down to the station and interrogate you for hours and tell you your going to jail.....but please remember they're just a bunch of clowns.
Our government really is slowly suffocating us with sanctions, trying to make it impossible for us to see the big picture or do anything about it when we do, but hopefully they will one day take it a step far and we will see a poll tax style reaction that will shove the fuckers back a few paces.
Thats enough of my early morning rant. peace Mr.P