The BBC are reporting that Junior Minister Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) has been singing the praises of ID cards at Labour’s conference in Manchester this week.
Hillier claimed that current plans were to extend the sheme to children as young as 14, whilst the plans may be too advanced by 2010 for the Conservatives to back out.
Quite why the government are insistant on pursuing the invasive ID card scheme is beyond me. They are unpopular enough.
ID Cards Do Not Work
David Heath (former Shadow Justice spokesman) told me once that ID cards do not work if you:
- are young,
- are old,
- have a round face,
- have brown hair,
- have a beard,
- are bald.
In fact, if you are bald with a brown beard, the machines used think you’re head’s on upside down!
Dangerous Government Failures
How can we trust the government over the implementation of this scheme?
They have a fantastic dreadful record of looking after our personal data. They cannot be trusted with the National Identity Database. Amusingly, Phil Booth, of campaign group NO2ID, was refused entry to the Labour conference because of their incompetence with personal data.
Look at their record with technology contracts. The NHS IT contract, for example. Over budget, not fully implemented, may be scrapped before it is fully implemented. How could we trust them to get it right this time?
Moral Arguments
Okay, it’s one thing to look at the government’s past record when knocking ID cards. But this ignores the main fault with the deal.
It is yet another case of the government praying on the public’s fears.
People’s liberties and freedoms are at stake here. The government is the servant of the people, not vice versa. It should not be able to ban people from going on holiday, or applying for a bank account, or a student loan, because they do not have an ID card.
Just because there may be benefits of having ID cards, it doesn’t make it the right thing to do. There would be benefits for curfews, state monopolies, and so on – it doesn’t make it right!
The time is now for campaigners to get out and stop the government from imposing an ID card scheme that will enfringe on our freedoms. It won’t make us safe; it won’t cut terrorism – terrorists do still carry ID after all.
1 Comment
September 24, 2008 at 11:18 am
This is simply a softly, softly approach to the introduction. First you implement ID cards for those that do not have a voice or are unlikely to object too much, selling it as a benefit. Then you just “extend” the ID programme. A bit like green taxes, stealth taxes, speed cameras and so on. Look below the surface and you can see through this group of pathetic politicians screwing with our liberty and freedom.