Because we're becoming increasingly like the US, where half of the country (or at least those who actually turn out to vote) are hellbent on voting for a party that doesn't give a single shit about their needs, just as long as they drivel out some racist shit now and again.
As @breadsmasher said, “Torys fucking the country? Better vote for them again!”
Most of the country are change hating small c conservatives who genuinely believe the state knows best and is totally trustworthy. They get their news from the Daily Mail or The Sun because Britain is the best country ever. Its the mindset that ensures we still have a class system, a monarchy and brexit.
Exactly. The government isn't your friend. To your government you're a cog in the machine and nothing more - misbehave and they'll rip you out and replace you with another
How are they tagging everyone though? Where's this database they're comparing against?
If this is like any other government project it won't work, it will cost 10 million pounds, and is developed by a company that previously specialized in the manufacture of plastic cutlery.
The company behind it, who supply the data are called Facewatch. I'm not going to link to their site but they're the ones supplying the tech and db. They did it by scraping social media sites as well as government documents and the plan is to add the UK Passport db data soon.
Microsoft has had facial tagging and tracking software in the wild for at least a decade. It can also accurately estimate your age, race, gender, and even your mood. I'm guessing they'll probably be using that database overlaid with a criminal wanted list.
I think enabling the functionality would require too much back-office and vendor integration to make it a feasible lie. Too many people would know about it - and the risks from lying and saying 'not enabled' are too great.
If they had been enabled - and found out - the recommended lie would be "we are currently undertaking a small-scale trial of the technology to assess it's effectveness. We will be report on the results early next year as part of a wider public consultation into it's wider deployment". (Why yes, I have worked in public sector comms).