Do the Brits live in fear of being “black bagged” by the government?
None of my British friends have ever mentioned it to me; though some do have an inordinate fear of being teabagged.
My edition of A Clockwork Orange came with the glossary in the back, and I seem to recall that it said the Russian influence on the slang was due to the pervasive Russian propaganda and broadcast programming, so I wonder if the UK was supposed to be one of the last non-Russian dominated countries and subject to a lot of broadcasts from some kind of “Radio Unfree Europe”.
The UK itself didn’t actually suffer any direct nuclear attacks in V. Prior to WWIII a Labour government disarmed and pulled the UK from NATO. The conditions that led to Norsefire seizing power were the result of the economic disruption and nuclear winter.
It’s also worth considering the (undue) prominence of extreme right-wing parties like the BNP (British National Party) and Mosley’s Fascists before them. The US undoubtedly has the odd Nazi nutcase, but I get the feeling they’re not as ‘organised’ at national level or given the press that they are here.
I don’t see how fringe parties such as the BNP and their ilk have any kind of prominence, undue or not. They may occasionally win seats in local council elections, but the prospect of them getting an MP, let alone a sniff of power, seems remote.
The fact that they have won seats in council elections is bad enough for some, arguing that it’s (understandably) too much power.
Although you’re completely right; they don’t have a snowball’s chance of “real” power, and I don’t live in fear of being ‘black bagged’ by the government, just throwing out theories about why it’s part of our culture.
As an English chap, I’m a bit puzzled by your assertion that there are ‘a lot of books’ about Government oppression.
Our best-selling authors write books about horseracing (Dick Francis), espionage (Len Deighton, John Le Carre), Fantasy (JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling), detectives (Agatha Christie, GK Chesterton) and cookery (Delia Smith, Jamie Oliver).
Our top films are about gangsters (Lock…Stock…, Long Good Friday) and wabbits (Watership Down).
We’ve had a Monarchy for about 937 out of the last 942 years 
and a Parliament for about 743 years.
So if ‘they’ are planning something, ‘they’ are certainly patient people.
We are delighted here that our regular police are unarmed and that gun ownership for self-defence is banned.
We have a thriving set of freedom-loving organisations (e.g. Amnesty International).
Honestly (and I mean no offence) the main threat to UK citizens is Guantanamo Bay. We have had several citizens taken there…
That’s just to lull us into a false sense of security!
I think there’s plenty to fear from any government - it’s just that hardly any of it is expected to be visited on us personally in the middle of the night. But many of us fear the government will dick us about with new and apparently pointless legislation, will raise taxes or screw us financially in some other way, or will commit us to war against some nation or other.
Heh, I dunno. I think the USSR was big on giving their criminals a rehabilitation through the back of their head.
Le Carre has branched out from pure espionage into social commentary, and sticks it to oppressive government in his more recent novels. Absolute Friends and The Mission Song have a go at the negatives of the “war on terror”. The Constant Gardener demonetises (probably justifiably) both the pharmaceutical industry and the government. He’s always had a bit of a social conscience and left-ish tilt, if you ask me. He still rocks as an author, of course.
Well not Brit, but live in London. Can’t say that they do.
So my proposed book about a secret agent who goes undercover as a Unicorn jockey to solve a murder at a wild game restaurant that’s controlled by the mob would make a fortune over there, wouldn’t it?
Indeed it would although a bit of romance (Barbara Cartland style) wouldn’t go amiss;)
I always thought much of this was just satire of '80s Tory Britain.