While if fully agree that Oystercards can and probably are used to track individuals this is only possible if you register it. Anyone can go into a station or newsagent and purchase an oystercard for £3 and use it for prepay and weekly travelcards without registering any personal details; thus gaining cheaper travel without any fear of being tracked.

the issue at hand here is a thousand times more complex than a simple secret coup of "the evil government" or "anti-democratic forces" in the political elite or "the state" taking everything over.

the technology that is hinted to be in the london oyster cards is supposed to be RFID if i am not mistaken, however the author(s) fail(s) to enlighten his/her/their audience whether it actually is said technology at work here or not.

(for information on RFID try this for a start:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid)

this technology is not part of a grand plan that is orchestrated from behind the scenes by people with cloaks and daggers, it is merely a very efficient form of supervision and "fighting crime". Thus it is in the best interest of the government and security forces to implement it, for maximum effect and reach into the entire population, since everybody can at some point be a potential criminal. "criminal" of course includes people who are not simply stealing shit or breaking shit, but also involved in things like squatting places, organizing "unlawful" demonstrations and other increasingly criminalized behavior. further, the group "criminal" can include people on parole for a previous offense or people that are "illegally" in this country.

to make a long story short, your critique of the use of this technology (in an admittedly relatively sneaky way) is absolutely relevant, necessary and spot on concerning the demands, however it blatantly fails to address the "why". if you speak of some nonsense "sleep-walk into fascism" you've not thought this out far enough. the government as it is is quite happy in its place. "they" are already in power and the vast majority of the people down here are quite happy with it in the sense that they are doing fuck all to change any of its policies (such as co2 emissions, resource wars, detention issues... need i say more?), let alone the entire system.

in short, the government is implementing undemocratic methods not because it wants to create some sort of V for Vendetta britain, but simply because it can.

why can it?

because nobody is stopping them and part of the reason that nobody is stopping them is because the so-called british "left" is worrying about some nonsense conspiracy bullshit when the actors involved have very real names and addresses, ministries they openly work for, companies they are employed with etc.

oh and by the way, it might do you some good to actually read "the mass psychology of fascism" you will find it is largely an attempt to explain why "ordinary working class people" in germany of the 1930s were drawn to fascism on an individual psychological level and what the left could have done or could do in similar future cases to prevent this draw on the same level. it laid the groundwork for reich's sex-politics as far as i know and i openly admit to having read the book and not fully understood it, rather than pose about it by signing it as my name

I have thought it out you patronising bourgoius prick. Who said anything about conspiracy bollockface! I thought about replying to your points and you just depress me -you get what you deserve you fucking useless tosser.

theree that's made me feel better - and of course that is the levelof your fucking stupid pseudo intellect. Now fuck off and die.

well first of all i seem to have hit a point, otherwise you wouldn't have used as more naughty words than a bad rapper trying to hide his lack of talent. the nature of your irrational reply speaks volumes, but shall go graciously overlooked, because i have to admit i was a bit of a ponce in the way i wrote.

however i still believe my criticism to be relevant.

for starters, you didn't point out what technology the government/transport people were planning to use, thus depriving readers from a chance to look into the issues further themselves.

further and more importantly, i still maintain that the government doesn't do these things simply because they are bad, but much rather because the constant strive towards accumulation of power is the norm of bureaucracy in capitalism. to be fair, you didn't mention the word "conspiracy" and i somewhat put it into your mouth, but that's what it sounds like an awful lot, especially when you end on "a vote for labour is a vote for national socialism" as this greatly underestimates what national socialism truly is.

oh and i don't see how me being bourgeois (sic!) or proletarian or even anti-gravitarian makes any difference, as i posted a comment on a expressly left-wing article, doing what the left does, i.e. criticize another lefty! as i mentioned in my first post, we've probably got more in common than against each other, i merely prefer to write more than semi-tabloid lefty blurbs, sorry if that judgment offends you further.

i'd be mildly interested in a reply, then i'll go fuck off and die.