Writer Helen Dale makes an interesting observation on Twitter:

There are rainbow coloured signs all over the gay village in Manchester, put up by city authorities, which say ‘look fabulous, you’re on CCTV’. This could be the title of a book on the 21st century state. — Helen Dale (@_HelenDale) June 21, 2018

This struck me as an interesting juxtaposition of ultra-permissiveness and authoritarian nannying and control. There is something very confused about a city authority that encourages people to let it all hang out while monitoring the same people for transgressions.

Since New Labour, successive governments have sought to run the country with an increasingly long, confusing, and ever-changing checklist of what people ought to do and what they musn’t. None of this is based in any logic, principle, or coherent ideology; these people have no idea who they are trying to be or what they want to achieve. Rainbow coloured signs warning people they’re being monitored is one of many indicators of a fearful establishment ruling with increasing desperation over a population they no longer understand.