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ID Cards: A lost Battle?
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. But I really hoped that HM Government would listen to the results of its own consultation paper.
But no.
The Sunday Times tells us that Home Secretary, David Blunklett is to press ahead with the introduction of compulsory ID Cards in the UK for everyone over the age of 16.
The home secretary has rejected voluntary entitlement cards and instead will require all citizens to have identity cards. Each card will contain biometric data, such as an image of a person’s iris or fingerprint, so police and other authorities can confirm the holder’s identity.
This wonderfully intrusive document will, to add insult to injury, cost each and every one of us £40.
The government will hold information about the population on a central computer database - a move that will further alarm civil liberties groups.
In a letter to fellow cabinet ministers dated June 25, Blunkett says: I believe that the case for introducing a universal identity card in the UK is overwhelming. The consultation exercise showed strong public support for a card scheme and a preference for the term ‘identity card’ rather than ‘entitlement card’.
Odd thing to say really, given this report from the BBC, who hold a different opinion yet again, from Her Majesty's Government.
He adds: The argument that identity cards will inhibit our freedoms is wrong. We are strengthened in our liberty if our identity is protected from theft; if we are able to access the services we are entitled to; and if our community is better protected from terrorists and organised criminals.
Quite.
And how long will that last?
At this rate, I think I might have to start looking at the price of jack boots and black shirts.
But no.
The Sunday Times tells us that Home Secretary, David Blunklett is to press ahead with the introduction of compulsory ID Cards in the UK for everyone over the age of 16.
The home secretary has rejected voluntary entitlement cards and instead will require all citizens to have identity cards. Each card will contain biometric data, such as an image of a person’s iris or fingerprint, so police and other authorities can confirm the holder’s identity.
This wonderfully intrusive document will, to add insult to injury, cost each and every one of us £40.
The government will hold information about the population on a central computer database - a move that will further alarm civil liberties groups.
In a letter to fellow cabinet ministers dated June 25, Blunkett says: I believe that the case for introducing a universal identity card in the UK is overwhelming. The consultation exercise showed strong public support for a card scheme and a preference for the term ‘identity card’ rather than ‘entitlement card’.
Odd thing to say really, given this report from the BBC, who hold a different opinion yet again, from Her Majesty's Government.
He adds: The argument that identity cards will inhibit our freedoms is wrong. We are strengthened in our liberty if our identity is protected from theft; if we are able to access the services we are entitled to; and if our community is better protected from terrorists and organised criminals.
Quite.
And how long will that last?
At this rate, I think I might have to start looking at the price of jack boots and black shirts.
This is utterly abhorrent!
I have always held the most jaded of opinions as to the unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom; we are not citizens, we are subjects and we have no rights, only privileges,none of us should forget that. With this in mind, should I really be surprised that the digital age in all of its wonder has finally shown Her Majesty's Government its darker side and they've gone all gooey at the knees - "At last we will have another nail in the coffin of the slow but inexorable march towards true freedom," says Blair - a written constitution would have put paid to him and his cronies long ago - can anyone say 'Impeachment'?. There are several of you with whom I have discussed this before, and you are probably still shaking your heads. Fine, I'm a paranoid nutcase who won't listen to reason. Now that I've placated you... I know that there are inumerable complications to the concept of a formalised, written constitution of any State in law. Better all of those problems than the ultimate truth of being a subject - we Britons have no Rights and ID cards are just another way of reminding us. Of course it could be worse - I could have been born into a society such as the Italy of the late sixties and early seventies under the tyrrany of corrupt proto dictators and caught betwixt them, the devil, and the deep red sea of the Red Brigades. One too many tirades such as this - even on a website if they'd had them - and I would have awoken on a quiet Tuscan hillside with a submachinegun nestling in the small of my back. I am aware that I have many freedoms by dint of being British, but all of them may be taken from me on a whim - nowhere in Law are any of them protected. One more of them will be taken away from me if this sickening policy is adopted - my right to be other than I am, for whatever reason. Imagine if you will, we all get the accursed things and then the country happens to fall into the hands of Blair Squared - a more charismatic, more machiavellian more presidential man (or woman). My friends and I begin a concerted yet peaceful opposition to this Prime Minister. Who among us will attempt to say that the technology is beyond the present that ID cards could be more than just an identifier - a locator as well? Does the horror begin to sink in? They do not need to be that clever, however. My friends and I are arresteed at a political rally - our names and identities confirmed by dint of the cards. We are not charged and we are released, but the record of our arrest is passed on to the "Office of Homeland Security" (insert actual name of proposed copy of American organisation here). Under the new provisions of the law that are included in revisions to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (post 9/11/2001) and the new Criminal Justice Bill, our mobile phone records and EIME numbers are available to the security services - now, everywhere we go with our mobile phones we can be found. This is not Science Fiction - there is commercial software available now in the UK which will allow you to combine your own mobile phone and a laptop computer to give you the location of a mobile for which you know the number and which is turned on. I am uncertain as to the legality of the use of such software, but it exists. I could just about accept the existence of ID cards if the law provided each man and woman that carries one the inalienable right to refuse to surrender it until formally charged with a crime, but if our identities can be confirmed on suspicion there is a problem. We may live in a society at the moment where such worries may seem like paranoia, but the genie cannot be put back in the bottle - if the ID Card comes in, then future potentially less benevolent administrations have a tool of unprecedented power at their disposal.
(cont. next post...)
Re: This is utterly abhorrent!
the web based mobile phone trackers...
and don't forget, in this 'possible world' that when you're arrested, even if not charged, they can add your DNA to the National DNA database