A worrying week. A young lady – the fact that she’s pregnant is beside the point – gets arrested and led away in cuffs. Her crime? Allowing the freedom of her thought to express itself through her FakeBook page.

More worrying; that her State’s coppers turned up at her locked-down home and dragged her from it. How did the security bureau know her thoughts? Well, it appears, she did have the balls to say what she was thinking and perhaps (me not being a FakeBooker) she’d allowed her ‘page’ to be public … Perhaps, there is some fellow citizen out there monitoring all these FakeBook pages, so … perhaps, one could say, its her own fault? Perhaps, so that we don’t denigrate ones fellow citizens, it was just the State monitoring her FakeBook page? Which, we’d have to suppose, is alright then – wouldn’t we?

“By authorising the government to deal ruthlessly with whatever opinions there may be, you are giving it the right to interpret thought, to make inductions, in a nutshell to reason and to put its reasoning in the place of facts which ought to be the sole basis for government counteraction. This is to establish despotism with a free hand … The men to whom you entrust the right to judge opinions are quite as susceptible as others to being misled or corrupted, and the arbitrary power which you will have invested in them can be used against the most necessary truths as well as the most fatal errors.” – Benjamin Constant.

More frightening though, were the comments of her State’s chief thug – Victoria’s chief of public police – that it was illegal to show dissent, or, to voice one’s opinion, in these so very dangerous times. He said, that if you were (I take it that is all and everyone of us) thinking of venturing out to show dissent, or, to voice an opinion contrary to the State’s … “they would get ya! We will jump on ya before you get onto public transport, before you get to the cafe … We will get ya before you even reach the bottom of your driveway. We will be waiting!” he said. Well Dirty Dutton’s certainly been busy on the job while we’ve all been obediently locked-down and out, ain’t he?

So refreshing to see that he’s lost none of his fierce draconian anti-democratic thuggery – wonder of wonders – though, one cant help thinking (privately of course) that, in some way, he’s letting the cat out of the bag. His fiefdom of Dicksonia heads off to the polls shortly, so perhaps its just a shot across their bows … Better get to ticking those privacy boxes in your FakeBook accounts fellow voters.

… Being obediently locked-out, my only news comes through Home Affairs Radio; Our ABC. An approved MP said, ‘that protest, dissent wasn’t yet totally illegal. As long as one was protesting about, or against, something that didn’t offend the State – the example used was the Black Live Matter Rally – and one did it in an obedient sort of way, one could still exercise their democratic rights, and protest. The guidelines for these approved protests were; protesters must travel separately to the ‘event’; they may gather together in groups not greater than 10, and must ensure that there is 1.5m between each of them and, they must ensure that each group is separated by 100m. How sensible. Oh, and, of course, in such dangerous times, one may not protest in public places. Even more sensible.

So one would have to imagine that this young lady – arrested in her home for her dissent – was somehow inciting a protest that may have actually worked? Shocking. Shocking!

Now, having peeked out from between my drawn curtains and thus ascertained that there is nit another Lucky Countryman within the proscribed distance from me (though there are Aurochs grazing in my paddock) and, believing that I am alone, i am now about to email my MP – my approved MP – not to voice dissent! but, to seek approval to be considered a legally official protester. I do hope that I don’t overstep the mark.

“In a democracy, the criminal law cannot be deployed as a tool for disposing of those who use their right of free speech to embarrass or inconvenience the authorities.” – Geoffrey Robertson.