Do not smile

The British government is currently backing its captive tax proles into holding Soviet-style internal passports by turning driving licenses into de-facto identity cards. As such, it was my displeasure the other day to need to re-apply for another one to ensure my photo ID was 'representative', otherwise I would be 'committing an offence' if I drove a car with an 'invalid' licence.

While the photo booth machine took my photo, the dead voice of the state instructed me 'not to frown', 'not to obscure my face with hair', 'not to sit too low', and 'not to think'.

Yes, I made that last one up, but I'm sure you get the picture.

The worst order though was the final one:

'Do not smile'

Yeah, I thought, the modern slogan to capture the whole essence of miserable socialism in a single phrase has finally been arrived at.

Where once we had life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness, in this country, before Thomas Paine left for America two hundred and fifty years ago, we now have: 'Do not smile'.

Thank you Karl Marx.