Symbol of resistance, protest and freedom put in a London square watched by CCTV where freedom no longer exists

This is a model of a proposed statue of Nelson Mandela, likely to be put up in Parliament Square.
Fair enough, you might think, and indeed so, at first, did E.R.
Until we realised one thing... that if Apartheid South Africa still existed, and Mandela even started talking about his anti-apartheid cause in Parliament Square, and spoke of acts of violence, he would be arrested and charged with the new incitement to terrorism laws recently passed in the UK.
Just as you would be if you did it now.
Even if it was about Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
In fact, even if he just started talking about apartheid to strangers in the street with no mention of violence, he would still qualify as a 'protest' and regardless of his cause, be locked up under a new law that bans any protest within a mile of Parliament.
And it would all be recorded on CCTV.
Two British teenagers who read out names of victims in Iraq in nearby Whitehall were arrested, imprisoned and fined under this very law.
The battle over ID cards between the House of Lords and the House of Commons has come to a "compromise" which means the biometric recognition cards will become compulsory by 2010.
With identities on databases, it will be possible, through biometric-recognition CCTV cameras, for millions of people to be tracked across urban areas by police.
Welcome to freedom, Nelson.
You have become part of the illusion.
Londoners. Our boots are being pissed in.