When Neu Labour uses words that most of us who can use a dictionary think we understand, we have to realise that the dictionary we use and the one used by the apparatchiks are somewhat different. I have before me, my copy of the Collins English Dictionary and this is its entry for the word “voluntary”
voluntary adj. 1. performed. undertaken, or brought about by free choice or willingly: a voluntary donation. 2. (of persons) serving or acting in a specified function without compulsion or promise of remuneration a: voluntary social worker. 3. done by, composed of, or functioning with the aid of volunteers: a voluntary association. 4. exercising or having the faculty of willing a: voluntary agent. 5. spontaneous: voluntary laughter. 6. Law. a. acting or done without legal obligation, compulsion, or persuasion. b. made without payment or recompense: a voluntary conveyance. 7. (of the muscles of the limbs, neck, etc.) having their action controlled by the will. 8. maintained by the voluntary actions or contributions of individuals and not by the state: voluntary schools. -n., pI. –taries. 9. Music. a composition or improvisation, usually for organ, played at the beginning or end of a church service. -‘voluntarlly adv.
I’ve emphasized the relevant definitions.
The Identity Cards Bill is intended to have a voluntary phase. Now, I’ve already discussed on a number of occasions the disingenuous nature of that premise – relying as it does on forcing people through passport renewals to register for the National Identity Register and be compelled to have one of these cards. This is not by any remote stretch of the imagination or language; “voluntary”. It is coercion, force and legal obligation – the antonym of “voluntary”.
Today, as if to underline the scurrilous cynicism and manipulation of our language by these fascists, the Telegraph has an article about guidance given by the buffoon Falconer to local councils
“The small print of a consultation paper published by Lord Falconer’s Department for Constitutional Affairs, released during the Christmas holiday, reveals that town hall officials will be asked to police the scheme by using the Electoral Register to identify homes and individuals without cards.
The register will be cross-checked against the proposed Identity Card Database in what the Conservatives are calling “Big Brother” tactics. Those who fail to register for a card or to keep their details up to date when, for example, they change address face fines of up to £2,500.”
Reading that with some horror – or it would have been if I had not gone beyond being horrified at the pernicious nature of this administration some wile since, I realise all too clearly that any attempt at passing this thing off as voluntary is a veneer so thin as to be transparent.
It goes on:
“In baffling language, the document proposes a shadowy sounding system called “Core” – and discusses the need for “data sharing” and “unique, personal identifiers”. (Core is a new centralised, electronic electoral register to replace the current, locally managed registers.)
It suggests that electoral registration offices (EROs), at local councils could help to provide information for the proposed ID Card Agency by scouring their systems.”
So, in Neu Labour speak, voluntary may be redefined as:
voluntary adj. 1. performed. undertaken, or brought about by
free choice or willinglycompulsion: a voluntary donation. 2. (of persons) serving or acting in a specified function without compulsion or promise of remuneration voluntary social worker. 3. done by, composed of, or functioning with the aid of volunteers: a voluntary association. 4. exercising or having the faculty of willing voluntary agent. 5. spontaneous: voluntary laughter. 6. Law. a. acting or donewithoutwith legal obligation, compulsion, or persuasion. b. made without payment or recompense: a voluntary conveyance. 7. (of the muscles of the limbs, neck, etc.) having their action controlled by the will. 8. maintained by the voluntary actions or contributions of individuals and not by the state: voluntary schools. -n., pI. -taries. 9. Music. a composition or improvisation, usually for organ, played at the beginning or end of a church service. -‘voluntarllyadv.
Oliver Heald, shadow constitutional affairs spokesmen had this to say about CORE:
“I believe local residents will be alarmed at the further prospect of town hall bureaucrats being told to investigate people’s homes for ID cards, backed up with the threat of thousand-pound fines.”
I bloody well hope so. It’s about time someone kicked the complacent electorate up its collective backside and made it face the reality that our liberty is being undermined by a group of neo-fascists in Whitehall and that too late isn’t so far away.
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