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The U.K. is a constitutional monarchy. There is no concept of "we the people" bottom up delegation of power to form a government; it's top down, the people are
by cmurf 11y ago
The U.K. is a constitutional monarchy. There is no concept of "we the people" bottom up delegation of power to form a government; it's top down, the people are subjects. That members of parliament are elected means the monarch's power is limited, rather than the source of the power of government and its authority coming from the people. So it's a different system than in the U.S., so when talking about traditional values don't assume western democracies are all really pretty much the same thing. There are important differences. And in this case, I expect the vast majority of British will have no problem with this kind of surveillance.
However, the company asserting it's not the surveillance branch of the government where it does business, is legitimate. Whether it'll make any difference is a separate question.
- clouddrover 11y agoNo, there are hardly any British subjects any more (if any left at all). They have become citizens. See both Wikipedia and the UK government's website for a history of the changes to laws around British citizenship and nationality. https://www.gov.uk/types-of-british-nationality/overview https://www.gov.uk/types-of-british-nationality/overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_subject https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_subject
- cmurf 11y agoYes these days legally they are citizens not subjects, but because of history, the connotation of the relationship with the state is one of a subject. Whereas from the outset there was a concept of citizens in the U.S. under the written constitutions (both of them).
- clouddrover 11y agoI'd say that because of history the connotation of the relationship with the state has become the exact opposite and the rule of law has been established. It started to change with Magna Carta: https://www.runnymede.gov.uk/magnacarta https://www.runnymede.gov.uk/magnacarta https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/medieval/magna-carta/ https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/medieval/magna... http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Edw1cc1929/25/9/contents http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Edw1cc1929/25/9/contents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
- mc808 11y agoOn a side note, as far as I can tell, there was no concept of "United States citizen" until 1868 with the 14th Amendment. People were just citizens of the state where they resided (which is an odd concept in itself, given the etymology of "citizen").