[AuthAuth]

You're getting swept up in a narrative that doesn't reflect reality. Public surveillance cameras and "petty regulation" are not authoritarian. The UK has a crime problem and these are needed to maintain some sense of public order, the government is democratically elected and the people are not opposed to these nor is there any wide spread abuse of this.

[AngryData]

They are pretty authoritarian to me. Nobody should accept constant surveillance upon them in their normal everyday lives. And petty regulations are a huge burden upon the working class who can't afford the time or money that the wealthy elite can to work through them. It is essentially a pro-wealth policy for that fact. Also crime rates way way lower now than in the past, so complaints about crime ring hollow to me, especially when you add in the fact that many crimes only exist because of the petty regulations that get foisted upon the poor. The UK's murder rate is the lowest it has been in over 50 years, and it isn't because of surveillance cameras.

And maybe if they spent more effort on improving everyone's lives instead of trying to find people to punish at any cost people would be less drawn to criminal enterprise in the first place.