Seriously, you don't have a problem with the proliferation of CCTV? ID requirements? Over taxation? Especially when none of it seems to be really stemming the tide of crime. How's all that social housing working out?

My comment may have been charged and hyperbolic, but seriously, you're going to bring up seal hunting in Canada as some type of defense or counter point against the rampant loss of freedoms and oppression by the UK government of its entire populace? I can understand if I had been talking about fox hunting.

I didn't pick on the BBC and I didn't pick on citizens except for saying that the country is allowing the state to take greater and greater control of everything. The BBC would benefit from funding from wider sources rather than a license applied at or post-retail on a small number of products. I find it hard to believe they don't receive money from elsewhere in the government coffers anyway. They certainly get a lot of financial backing from other corporations and even governments (like the Canadian one) for select productions.

Anyway, the UK as a whole has produced the vast majority of my favorite artists and a decent number of some of my favorite TV programs and films. Far more than have ever or will ever come out of Canada. Would I like to see the same measures of government and state over-control here? It would sure help with that angst and rebellion that fuels the fires of so many great artists, but no, I like being able to wipe my ass without a camera shoved in it.

England, Ireland, Scotland and even Wales, are places I very much want to visit, but I'll make sure to bring along my foil hat.