We have serious reservations about retiring to England when we finish our world tour of countries casting off Communism. After all, the point of retirement is to have a change from one's working life, isn't it?
The National Identity Database; ID cards (no doubt compulsory by our retirement date); no habeas corpus; restricted jury trials; police made arrogant by excessive powers; police targets that incentivise them to go for soft middle class types and leave the hard cases alone; a Government that knows no boundaries to interference in our daily lives - these don't strike us as likely to make our retirement comfortable.
We don't want to retire to the countryside. We want theatres, musems, shops. So London (still my favourite city in the world, despite the competing charms of Venice, Moscow, Paris and - my latest love - Istanbul) would - all other things being equal - be our first choice. But not if it's the heart of Stalinist darkness that Blair, Brown, Clarke and Blunkett seem determined to build. Maybe this story from the BBC means that Edinburgh is the place for us? At least the Members of the Scottish Parliament don't do synchronised sneering if someone makes a civil liberties point.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
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