…of annoying, perfectly legally (it must be this way) jumped-up-bureaucrats?
David Davis
I had an idea while scanning Old Holborn on Facebook just now. The buggers have created 4,000+ new criminal offences in 13 years: let’s try and match that with the number of ways they can be irritated, annoyed, and obstructed, while staying entirely within the law as it stands. (This may have been an original idea of Sean gabb’s, I can’t remember.)
If they start to move the fences in their enragement at this process, then we will truly know what we are dealing with.
Comments please!
I should imagine that “staying entirely within the law as it stands” is actually quite difficult these days!
I’m certainly up for your challenge – trouble is, I can only think of things that are probably illegal, like removing any tracking devices on your rubbish bins. I’ve checked mine, and there isn’t one yet – but it’ll be ripped out and disposed of “pdq” if one does appear!
I’ll put my thinking cap on.
A further thought – have we got to the point where civil disobedience is unavoidable?
The very fact that 4000+ new offences have been created, criminalises many of the things that previously only “inconvenienced” officials. It is very hard to “get up their noses” without the threat of possible prosecution – the answer to the question “What am I being prosecuted for?”, is “Don’t you worry, we’ll think of something!”.
I doubt any of us want to commit acts of civil disobedience, but I think it is already very hard to avoid doing so, without completely submitting to “the authorities”.
I don’t think we’ve quite reached that point yet Paul, leastways I hope we haven’t. But this re-raises Sean Gabb’s point about whether or not to fote Tory: five more years of New Labour and we’ll be into the disobedience thing big-time by about year 3 I think.
The Tories would give us a little more time, as the pace of enslavement would be slower. Also the political future-possibilities immediately after a quick Tory-collapse-scenario (probable, maybe as soon as early-2011, while memories of new Labour are still fresh) may be more promising for liberalism than an artificially-delayed Labour-collapse at the same time or later.
But let’s get the suggestions coming in! If we can’t find any, that will also tell us something about what pass we have come to!
Well, I’m still thinking, but in the meantime, this is a good place to look for ways to annoy policemen – you’ve probably come across it already, but….
http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/
It will be difficult, as we don’t have fences but fenceposts in place. We walk among them, they do not appear to be on our wag, but at any time the panels can be slid in.
Here’s one: Don’t pay the telly tax. I don’t.
I receive endless letters from a fictitious person telling me I’m breaking the law and can expect a visit from an inspector. But the letters go in the bin – there’s no proof that I’ve received any letters at all, they aren’t sent registered post and if the inspector calls, he ain’t getting in my house without a warrant from a judge.
Of course the nuclear option would be for everyone not to pay any bills for a few months.
Probably start with credit cards and move upwards and end up with all household bills, if enough people did it can you imagine the squealing noise those pigs with their noses in the trough would make?
The irony is that the rules and regs were put in place as a way for the marxists to break the free market!
While it sounds like fun to be as difficult as possible by staying within the law, the frustration of doing so is going so far against my ideals of not having to deal with bureaucracy that I doubt I would be able to take the stress!!
It’s a bit hard to think of general purpose actions. If we started with some of the worst offenders and bought advertising billboards in their local (ie family) area about the consequences of their actions as a start. Nothing gets up your nose more than Rita from number 42 whinging directly to your mum. I can’t strictly think of a law against following public servants with a hd telly until they get caught breaking some traffic violations. An attractive woman or man could shag them and tell their wife what a cad they are. (Brighter people may need to check with a solicitor first..)
A quick google finds this…
http://www.starhawk.org/activism/198ways.html
198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION
by Gene Sharp
FORMAL STATEMENTS
1. Public speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public declarations
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
6. Group or mass petitions
COMMUNICATIONS WITH A WIDER AUDIENCE
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting
GROUP REPRESENTATIONS
13. Deputations
14. Mock awards
15. Group lobbying
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections
SYMBOLIC PUBLIC ACTS
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
24. Symbolic lights
25. Displays of portraits
26. Paint as protest
27. New signs and names
28. Symbolic sounds
29. Symbolic reclamations
30. Rude gestures
PRESSURES ON INDIVIDUALS
31. “Haunting” officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
DRAMA AND MUSIC
35. Humorous skits and pranks
36. Performances of plays and music
37. Singing
PROCESSIONS
38. Marches
39. Parades
40. Religious processions
41. Pilgrimages
42. Motorcades
HONORING THE DEAD
43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places
PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES
47. Assemblies of protest or support
48. Protest meetings
49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
50. Teach-ins
WITHDRAWAL AND RENUNCIATION
51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honours
54. Turning one’s back
THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION
OSTRACISM OF PERSONS
55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott
57. Lysistratic nonaction
58. Excommunication
59. Interdict
NONCOOPERATION WITH SOCIAL EVENTS, CUSTOMS, AND INSTITUTIONS
60. Suspension of social and sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience
64. Withdrawal from social institutions
WITHDRAWAL FROM THE SOCIAL SYSTEM
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. “Flight” of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration (hijrat)
ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION
ACTION BY CONSUMERS
71. Consumers’ boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73. Policy of austerity
74. Rent withholding
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumers’ boycott
77. International consumers’ boycott
ACTION BY WORKERS AND PRODUCERS
78. Workers’ boycott
79. Producers’ boycott
ACTION BY MIDDLE-PEOPLE
80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott
ACTION BY OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT
81. Traders’ boycott
82. Refusal to let or sell property
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance
85. Merchants’ “general strike”
ACTION BY HOLDERS OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
89. Severance of funds and credit
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government’s money
ACTION BY GOVERNMENTS
92. Domestic embargo
93. Blacklisting of traders
94. International sellers’ embargo
95. International buyers’ embargo
96. International trade embargo
THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOOPERATION
SYMBOLIC STRIKES
97. Protest strike
98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
AGRICULTURAL STRIKES
99. Peasant strike
100. Farm workers’ strike
STRIKES BY SPECIAL GROUPS
101. Refusal of impressed labor
102. Prisoners’ strike
103. Craft strike
104. Professional strike
ORDINARY INDUSTRIAL STRIKES
105. Establishment strike
106. Industry strike
107. Sympathy strike
RESTRICTED STRIKES
108. Detailed strike
109. Bumper strike
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike
112. Reporting “sick.” (sick-in)
113. Strike by resignation
114. Limited strike
115. Selective strike
MULTI-INDUSTRY STRIKES
116. Generalised strike
117. General strike
COMBINATION OF STRIKES AND ECONOMIC CLOSURES
118. Hartal
119. Economic shutdown
THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION
REJECTION OF AUTHORITY
120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
CITIZENS’ NONCOOPERATION WITH GOVERNMENT
123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government employment and positions
126. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from governmental educational institutions
128. Boycott of government-supported institutions
129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
CITIZENS’ ALTERNATIVES TO OBEDIENCE
133. Reluctant and slow compliance
134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience
136. Disguised disobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138. Sitdown
139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
141. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws
ACTION BY GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL
142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command and information
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative noncooperation
146. Judicial noncooperation
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny
DOMESTIC GOVERNMENTAL ACTION
149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENTAL ACTION
151. Changes in diplomatic and other representation
152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic relations
155. Withdrawal from international organizations
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
157. Expulsion from international organisations
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION
PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTION
158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast (fast of moral pressure, hunger strike, satyagrahic fast)
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment
PHYSICAL INTERVENTION
162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation
SOCIAL INTERVENTION
174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theatre
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
ECONOMIC INTERVENTION
181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions
POLITICAL INTERVENTION
193. Overloading of administrative systems
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government
There is also a unique opportunity on the 6th of May, an available pressure point or fulcrum, all perfectly legal.
Encourage everyone you meet to vote for the minor parties instead of the LibLabCon Axis of Traitors.
This may very well lead to a Hung Parliament, bond markets jack up interest rates, uk rating falls, taxes go up and other general hilarities leading to Civil Disturbance.
Then out of the Ashes and all that …
This is one I love doing to the good people at the Council Tax “Service”.
When I get my new council tax bill I set up a monthly direct debit. The following month I cancel it and pay cash. Next month I set up a direct debit – then cancel again a month later.
ad infinitum.
Occasionally I re-register mine and the wifes cars in each others names and get new documents.
I first came across a group called bureaucrash when I got involved in Libertarianism in 19998. I didn’t pay it much attention but believe you might benefit from looking them up.
You basically give the bureaucrats so much to do that they can’t spend time thinking of new ways to annoy you (careful they don’t use it to hire more staff!). Official Information Requests work. Letters of complaint with trivial responses to their responses. I’d suggest you need to target a bureaucracy with your mates if you’re to succeed.
Potholes. It’s easy to find a hundred within easy walking distance of your home.
Phone in each one individually to your council’s roads office, and to the Highways Agency. Get a call reference number for each call. Do one a day.
Take the list you have and swap it with a friend’s. Then phone that one in while your friend phones in yours too.
I like the big list of nonviolent protest methods. Skywriting “Gordon is a c&^t” in hundred-foot smoke trails over Westminster would have a certain class about it.
Filling in job applications for government positions you have no intention of taking, going so far as arranging an interview and not turning up.
Stop smoking, drinking and driving or limit it as far as possible. They keep upping the taxes on these things to encourage us to stop doing them. Fine, stop doing it and cut off their access to your cash.
Stop buying goods, or delay buying goods. Buy only the bare essentials for one month, delaying luxury purchases, in the second month, buy anything you want and stock up on things to see you through the next month. Done in a coordinated way tax receipts could fall heavily for a month.
It’s not just Gordon though, is it?
Oily Cameron and Osborne don’t have the knowledge or courage to get us out of this mess, just a knack for climbing greasy poles.
Always refuse to co-operate. If accused of anything always deny it, always plead not guilty, always complain about official treatment, where possible always allege racism, homophobia etc, strangle the system with its own absurd attitudes, prejudices, paperwork requests under freedom of Information act etc., If everyone did this the system would collapse, if onlt 10% of us did this the system would eventually grind to a shuddering halt.
I think the withdrawl of bank deposits just for one (same) day would jigger things up a bit.
To do so I expect would put you on the Domestic Extremist list. Again.
@winston – brew your own booze , a trip across to Europe once every two/three months – Goverment big loser !
@BUCKO – used to write a letter to the council tax dated saturday – not very eloquent saying I had no work to go to ………………………… Tax Man – GF left I cant read sorry mate ………………
Ohh brings back happy memories – thanks for the reminders
@odinsraven
LOL, return all bills with a badly spelled letter saying you can’t read, product of labour’s education system.
fake some emails. then withdraw all your bank deposits and send it by western union to a “scammer” in a foreign country, who sends it back to you. declare bankruptcy.
Bugger this nonsense,it sounds like naughty children in the playground,how about a couple of million of us converging upon westminster,demanding what the English people want for a change,extract guarantees,and if none are forthcomming rip these bastards throats out,and install a government by the English people,for the English people,in the service of the English people,if you lot of girls want to bring your handbags then i suppose that is acceptable,only be prepared to ladder your tights.
If you get a parking ticket from one of those companies that have cameras in supermarkets etc demand to see the CRB checks on all personnell involved in monitoring the cameras and processing the data. They haven’t had CRB checks. Don’t bother with the parking companies, take it up with MacDonalds, Tesco etc and voice your fears about predatory paedophiles manning the CCTV. Then complain to the DVLA and ask them why they’re selling data to unchecked people.
It worries them when you scream paedophile and puts them to a deal of trouble. Use their own tools against them. Same procedure to apply to any jobsworth who hassles you, especially when you’re with your children.