British way of life

Today David Cameron announced in a keynote speech in Birmingham the government's five-year strategy to tackle 'extremist ideology', a plan which apparently includes powers to take action against individuals or groups considered to be espousing extremist views.  This latter was said by Teresa May not to be attack on the principle of free speech.  While saying that free speech is important she also said

...we have to look at the impact that some people have in terms of the poisonous ideology that they are trying to implant in people’s minds

 We are told this plan is to be put in place to deal with Islamic extremists, and it comes in the same week as it has been revealed that British forces have been involved in bombing missions in Syria, despite Parliament voting against military action in Syria two years ago and no further vote having taken place since.  Indeed Mr Cameron is known to be in favour of Britain taking part in further military action in Syria.

The article above was introduced with the following quote as its strapline

There are people born and raised in this country who don’t really identify with Britain

Now while currently the policy on extremism is targeted at radical Muslims, it doesn't take a great leap of the imagination to see that, in the fullness of time, the above sentence could easily be used to justify action against Scottish and Welsh nationalists, especially if there is another referendum on the cards.  Maybe it's paranoia, but it doesn't mean they're not out to get us.

Meanwhile, what are we being distracted from by all this?  Possibly from the Australian TV programme '60 Minutes', which yesterday broadcast a special report entitled 'Spies, Lords and Predators'.  This investigated the allegations of a paedophile network operating around Westminster and the cover-ups that have has taken place by the Establishment to protect people holding high office in Britain.  There was much discussion of the programme on Twitter under the hashtag #60mins, but strangely the hashtag never appeared on any of the trending lists.  More paranoia?  Maybe.  But if there's a shred of truth in the allegations, what does that say about the British way of life and why would we want to preserve it at all costs?