Small signs of totalitarianism.

[Bored Of Education]

Let's face it, the only way you are going to seize the British people's liberties is in stealthy but polite ways, such as gradually increasing the amount of police that are routinely armed.

Firstly, upon returning from that there abroad, I noticed that the customs officials were wearing very imposing black trousers, black shirts and black ties whereas, previously, they wore something that looked like a navy officer's uniform with a white shirt.

Secondly, while I walked up in that there London, I went through Grosvenor Square. Now the US Embassy has always been a vile looking building but I have now noticed that it is guarded by armed UK police within its prison style fence. Also Grosvenor Square is no longer a square that you can drive around due to the embassy closing the part of the road right in front of them and putting bollards and cars either end.



When I was there, it was US station wagons with blacked out windows and diplomatic plates rather that the diplomatic police vans seen above.

The whole thing seems a blurring of territory if nothing else. An Embassy effectively taking over a UK road while I thought that embassies had to provide their own security on site as embassies are effectively little bits of the country's territory.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

I didn't know there was a road there, but then we native immigrant Londoners tend not to drive.

I don't dislike that building apart from the sinister eagle crest, which you'd think they'd have binned after WW2. There's a hilarious statue of Ronald Reagan nearby, IIRC, which . . . actually, could there be any other kind? It's preposterous.

Agree on the guns. I'm glad it's still a culture shock to see them here, although it is becoming more common. In the last year I've noticed them outside the Ministry of Defence, at King's Cross station and worst of all, just inside some government building where I had a job interview. I had to have my bag searched by armed and armoured tossers before I could see whether I was fit to edit information aimed at disabled people. Bit disproportionate, really.

[G-Man]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

It's like the time when Britain had its own colonies, only now Britain is the colony.

As Matt Johnson already noted in 1987 in this anthem.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

There's actually not much evidence of US political heavyweighting 'round here to be honest. Plenty of cultural imperialism in soft ways, probably not those people would predict - I've been struck recently by how American the language used in bland post-hipster leisure zones can be, like in London's Exciting Borough of Hackney, where 'take out' has replaced takeaway along with other such minor indignities.

The big change in the last five years or so has been that Britain (actually the Tory administration) has turned its guns on its own citizens instead of people abroad.

[Southport Zeb]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

More US embassies should look like the one in Liubljana

[SouthdownRebel]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Guns are frequently present at Victoria station when I pass through there

[Lucia Lanigan]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Yet, mysteriously, not when anyone else does.

[via vicaria]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

The Grosvenor Square embassy is not long for this world. They're about halfway done on the new one in Battersea (it's enormous and ugly, but then absolutely everything they're building down in Battersea at the moment is like that)

[Bored Of Education]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

It's got a moat, hasn't it? What next, boiling oil?

[Sam]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

And toilets that jut out over the walls of the building so they're just shitting on people's heads outside.

Actually from what I hear on here about the way the country's gone while I've been over here, that'll probably give someone an idea if they read it, won't it.

[SouthdownRebel]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Lucia Lanigan wrote: Yet, mysteriously, not when anyone else does.

Heh, my natural charm and charisma tend to have this effect

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Bored of Education wrote: Let's face it, the only way you are going to seize the British people's liberties is in stealthy but polite ways, such as gradually increasing the amount of police that are routinely armed.

Disagree. The way to steal British people's liberties is to brazenly announce sweeping new powers in order to implement a nationwide campaign of harassment and intimidation of a minority and everyone else will vote you in.

Because if there's one thing* that British people love more than liberty, it's racialised state harassment of religious minorities.

Like, we've passed laws requiring teachers to grass on Muslim kids with opinions, so it's apparent you can be pretty brazen about this shit.

* Other things British people love more than liberty:
- bombing foreigns
- the little England flags you stick on your car during the World Cup
- not surrendering to the IRA.

[Bored Of Education]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Bizarre Löw Triangle wrote:

Let's face it, the only way you are going to seize the British people's liberties is in stealthy but polite ways, such as gradually increasing the amount of police that are routinely armed.

Disagree. The way to steal British people's liberties is to brazenly announce sweeping new powers in order to implement a nationwide campaign of harassment and intimidation of a minority and everyone else will vote you in.

Because if there's one thing* that British people love more than liberty, it's racialised state harassment of religious minorities.

Like, we've passed laws requiring teachers to grass on Muslim kids with opinions, so it's apparent you can be pretty brazen about this shit.

* Other things British people love more than liberty:
- bombing foreigns
- the little England flags you stick on your car during the World Cup
- not surrendering to the IRA.

For the record, number 2 is kind of an English thing (although not exclusively) and number 3, while not exclusively English, isn't shared with enthusiasm in the rest of the UK.

Anyway, looking into the shutting down of the road outside of the embassy presented some interesting facts. Of course, it all happened after 2001. The US are moving Westminster Council refused to close down more roads to traffic (normally, something I am a fan of but for good reasons). The facade of that monstrosity is listed so the new Quatari owners - oh, the irony - have to keep it. I also unearthed this classic from Uncle Ken.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Yeah, I think those are more things that British governments love, not British people. Aside from the quiet bigotry about muslims or people on benefits, which come and go and change in ways demagogues are constantly playing catch-up with, that is.

BLT, do you honestly think there's popular support for the notion that teachers should be reporting muslim kids they think might one day think heretical thoughts? I think pretty much anyone would recognise how fucking ridiculous this escapade is. It's the pigfucker's rotten attempt to second-guess what normal people think, based on focus groups saying "yes" to loaded questions.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Don't know if you saw this from the Nicky Morgan thread, LL.

[My Name Is Ian]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

* Other things British people love more than liberty:
- bombing foreigns
- the little England flags you stick on your car during the World Cup
- not surrendering to the IRA.

I've never surrendered to the IRA. In fact, I make it a point to not surrender to the IRA every morning, just before I go to work.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: Don't know if you saw this from the Nicky Morgan thread, LL.

Flipping heck, that is insane.

[ursus arctos]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Bored, you must not be terribly familiar with major US diplomatic installations after 9/11.

We lived very close to the US Consulate in Frankfurt, which is rumoured to contain the largest CIA operation in Western Europe among other things.

This is a photo of how it looked from the street in 2013 For more than a year after 9/11, there was a small tank/armored personal carrier parked where the van is in the photo above.

The street in question was originally a significant thoroughfare in one of FFM's nicer neighbourhoods, but became largely impassible as a result of the "security". A good friend of ours who lived about a block away eventually had to move, as she and her family were no longer able to park anywhere close to their flat.

This also is not at all exclusive to the US. My office in Milan shared a building with the UK Consulate, and its entrances were guarded by heavily armed (but even more intensely bored) Italian military 24/7.

[caja-dglh]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

True, except for Benghazi

[Bored Of Education]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Are most US embassies ugly, ursus, like the one hilariously listed one here and that Franfurt one or more nice like the Liubljana one upthread.

Anyway, I have decided that this is the UK Human Rights thread in all but name so I thought I would put this up. Was I the only one to have missed this the first time around until the reporting around May's announcement today - in itself, a rather large sign of totalitarianism.

[Bored Of Education]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Man charged with singing "I shot the sheriff" in a built up area.

[ursus arctos]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Are most US embassies ugly, ursus, like the one hilariously listed one here and that Franfurt one or more nice like the Liubljana one upthread.

As a general rule, the more recent the construction, the more hideous the structure. There is also generally an inverse relationship between the perceived importance/security of host country and aesthetics.

Note that Frankfurt isn't an embassy, it's a consulate. It diplomatic speak, one can only have an embassy in a capital or the seat of an international organisation.

[San Bernardhinault]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

Coming late to this, but I rather like the Grosvener Square embassy. I find it fairly attractive (apart from the fascist-style ludicrous gold eagle).

I have a soft spot for what I think is called US Federal Brutalist architecture. Although Grosvener Square is from an earlier era and slightly different aesthetic, I think it fits the continuum.

[ursus arctos]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

It's a Saarinen building and therefore better than most of its kind.

But the whole thing is supposed to move to Wandsworth for security reasons.

[San Bernardhinault]

Small signs of totalitarianism.

I did not know it was a Saarinen...