We received this as an email yesterday. What follows is a detailed and clear explanation of the (sinister) implications of ID card / National Identity Register database legislation. The email finished with the words: “If you did not know the full scope of the proposed ID Card Scheme before and you are as unsettled as I am at what it really means to you, to this country and its way of life, I urge you to email or photocopy this and give it to your friends and colleagues and everyone else you think should know and who cares.”
“You may have heard that legislation creating compulsory ID Cards passed a crucial stage in the House of Commons. You may feel that ID cards are not something to worry about, since we already have Photo ID for our Passport and Driving License and an ID Card will be no different to that. What you have not been told is the full scope of this proposed ID Card, and what it will mean to you personally. The proposed ID Card will be different from any card you now hold. It will be connected to a database called the NIR (National Identity Register), where all of your personal details will be stored. This will include the unique number that will be issued to you, your fingerprints, a scan of the back of your eye, and your photograph. Your name, address and date of birth will also obviously be stored there. There will be spaces on this database for your religion, residence status, and many other private and personal facts about you. There is unlimited space for every other details of your life on the NIR database, which can be expanded by the Government with or without further Acts of Parliament.
By itself, you might think that this register is harmless, but you would be wrong to come to this conclusion. This new card will be used to check your identity against your entry in the register in real time, whenever you present it to 'prove who you are'. Every place that sells alcohol or cigarettes, every post office, every pharmacy, and every Bank will have an NIR Card Terminal (very much like the Chip and Pin Readers that are everywhere now) into which your card can be 'swiped' to check your identity.
Each time this happens, a record is made at the NIR of the time and place that the Card was presented. This means, for example, that there will be a government record of every time you withdraw more than £99 at your branch of NatWest, who now demand ID for these transactions. Every time you have to prove that you are over 18, your card will be swiped, and a record made at the NIR. Restaurants and off licenses will demand that your card is swiped so that each receipt shows that they sold alcohol to someone over 18, and that this was proved by the access to the NIR, indemnifying them from prosecution.
Private businesses are going to be given access to the NIR Database. If you want to apply for a job, you will have to present your card for a swipe. If you want to apply for a London Underground Oyster Card, or a supermarket loyalty card, or a driving license you will have to present your ID Card for a swipe. The same goes for getting a telephone line or a mobile phone or an internet account. Oyster, DVLA, BT and Nectar (for example) all run very detailed databases of their own. They will be allowed access to the NIR, just as every other business will be. This means that each of these entities will be able to store your unique number in their database, and place all your travel, phone records, driving activities and detailed shopping habits under your unique NIR number.
These databases, which can easily fit on a storage device the size of your hand, will be sold to third parties either legally or illegally. It will then be possible for a non-governmental entity to create a detailed dossier of all your activities. Certainly, the government will have clandestine access to all of them, meaning that they will have a complete record of all your movements, from how much and when you withdraw from your bank account to what medications you are taking, down to the level of what sort of bread you eat – all accessible via a single unique number in a central database.
This is quite a significant leap from a simple ID Card that shows your name and face. Most people do not know that this is the true character and scope of the proposed ID card. Whenever the details of how it will work are explained to them, they quickly change from being ambivalent towards it. The Government is going to COMPEL you to enter your details into the NIR and to carry this card. If you and your children want to obtain or renew your passports, you will be forced to have your fingerprints taken and your eyes scanned for the NIR, and an ID Card will be issued to you whether you want one or not. If you refuse to be fingerprinted and eye scanned, you will not be able to get a passport.
Your ID Card will, just like your passport, not be your property. The Home Secretary will have the right to revoke or suspend your ID at any time, meaning that you will not be able to withdraw money from your Bank Account, for example, or do anything that requires you to present your government issued ID Card.
The arguments that have been put forwarded in favour of ID Cards can be easily disproved. ID Cards WILL NOT stop terrorists; every Spaniard has a compulsory ID card as did the Madrid Bombers. ID Cards will not 'eliminate benefit fraud', which in comparison, is small compared to the astronomical cost of this proposal, which will be measured in billions according to the LSE (London School of Economics). This scheme exists solely to exert total surveillance and control over the ordinary free British Citizen, and it will line the pockets of the companies that will create the computer systems at the expense of your freedom, privacy and money.
The Bill has proceeded to this stage due to the lack of accurate and complete information on this proposal being made public.”
Comments (10)
I think that Angela Pinter is, perhaps, being a tad uncharitable. To my mind, Civitas has always stood for a robust defence of civil and political rights, but rejects the necessity of social and economic rights. To my mind, justly so, it is the conflagration of the two (ala Shue) that is the undermining of the truth of our basic freedoms in return for such spurious fascisiscms as 'freedom vs. security'. By expanding the envelope of natural rights to all things we are in danger of negating what generations of Britons fought for.
Declaration of Arbroath, by King Robert Bruce (1320):
"for so long as 100 of us remain alive, we will never in any degree be subject to the rule of the English. For it is not for glory, riches or honour that we fight. But for liberty alone, which no good man loses but, but with his life".
This is the constitution as I stand. Blood stands between us and its revocation.
Posted by Chas | April 13, 2006 2:05 AM
Posted on April 13, 2006 02:05
It's about time we had a popular revolution in the country to overthrow the tyrany of democracy and instead replace it with a limited small govt with taxes purely for the purpose of national defence, police and the judiciary. Anyone interested in such an idea?
Posted by Will | April 13, 2006 1:15 AM
Posted on April 13, 2006 01:15
Most of us have nothing to hide, so what? I do not want to be monitored every hour of every day. Added to which, when did this government ever get an IT system correct? They are in search of total power over us all. The Government is not your friend!
Posted by Derek Buxton | April 11, 2006 6:03 PM
Posted on April 11, 2006 18:03
I share many of the concern posted by Nick Sedoon. But the basis for the ID scheme was laid by a Conservative Governmetn when it switched driving licenses into ID card format. Then of course CIvitas and 'liberal' other think-tanks remained silent.
The issue of ID cards is very complex and becomes sinister when civil society is weak. And becoming weaker.
Civitas itself is not without its own contradictions. Data protection is part of the defence of the individual and part of human rights. Civitas has always been hostile to human rights. Opposition to ID cards and more importantly to government control of the database is a human rights issue.
But Civitas does not see it that way because it does not see human rights as relevant.
So when the privacy of individuals is trampled will Civitas spurn the human rights arguments involved.?
I think it is time Civitas developed a more coherent postion because there are serious issues at stake.
Posted by Angela Pinter | April 11, 2006 12:09 PM
Posted on April 11, 2006 12:09
I have heard many arguments against the ID as it effects individuals, but lets also think about 'society' for a minute.
The power of the database is the power to analyze the country, in the hands of an incumbent government this is the capacity to understand how and where to target resources in order to win elections by social, regional and ethnic profiling.
Then there is also the question of the underground society that will inevitably develop, the cash society of the illegal immigrants that will be forced into such heinous things as backstreet abortion and reliance on the mob for social services.
Many radical protestant are also prohibited from being a part of a unified government database linked to biometric characteristics. We will also face the same persecution if we are to stick to our faith.
Today, I have nothing to hide. Tomorrow, who knows? I can easily envisage a situation in which the government may be clearly deemed anti-democratic and persecutorial. Who will they analyze as being anti-social, as being a sickness to society, of being counter to the public good?
Posted by Chas. | April 10, 2006 12:53 AM
Posted on April 10, 2006 00:53
Two comments:
1. The debate over ID cards tends to be stated in pro- or anti-libertarian terms. This kind of polarized thinking is not helpful if we are trying to understand the implications of the proposed ID card scheme. I hasten to add that the scheme really does worry me and seems to be yet another example of the drive for control that central governments of all stripes are exhibiting.
2. It is inevitable that the IT systems behind the ID card scheme will be subject to the usual cost overruns and other SNAFUs. The government's record on IT schemes is shameful. So, will the 'Big Brother conspiracy' be brought low by the government's inability to make the IT work? It may be, but we shall probably all suffer as a result. Compare the Child Support Agency fiasco.
Posted by Barney | April 8, 2006 11:45 AM
Posted on April 8, 2006 11:45
When it comes to talking about the National ID card it always seems that most vapid of comments are prefixed with something along the lines of;
"Get over it! I have nothing to hide, and if you don't either then it won't be a problem."
It isn't about having something to hide, it's about valuing our freedom and privacy, and which the National ID card will remove from us all.
If you don't understand the truly pernicious nature of the National ID card you probably deserve to be living in a police state.
As Benjamin Franklin once said;
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Posted by Paul, Bedford | April 5, 2006 11:05 PM
Posted on April 5, 2006 23:05
Who cares about having something to hide - the whole point is that it takles us that one step closer to having to get Government permission before we do _anything_!
How long before we can't buy a house or get a job because we're deemed "undesirable"? How long before all these private sector companies have access to our every movement and bombard us with millions more advertising messages than we already get, or before we're judged by what's on our identity card rather than how we behave?
It's going to be even easier for criminals to commit identity fraud if all they have to do is replicate an ID card - the technology isn't foolproof, and it will only be a short time before "fake" ID cards are available for sale on eBay.
Where will our "security" be then? How weill our benefit system be protected when the whole key to unlock it is available on-line?
Why do we accept that the Government continues to place ever-tightening regulations on our life, when what is needed is a more open society, not one that relies on an identity card to even exist in the eyes of the law?
Posted by Dave Harris | April 5, 2006 12:59 PM
Posted on April 5, 2006 12:59
The ID database scheme does not only check who you are, but gives the government the means to approve (or not) the transactions in respect of which a reference is made.
Everyone who makes such references is turned into a policeman and informant.
The state is given the means to control our lives far more effectively and in far more detail than hitherto. There will be fewer practical limitations to the further extension of its controls, and less scope for passive resistance by the population.
Posted by Tim | April 5, 2006 12:28 PM
Posted on April 5, 2006 12:28
Get over it! I have nothing to hide, and if you don't either then it won't be a problem. These cards are to work for the good of the people by making it easier to catch criminals and track them etc, not to criminalise everyone. Less paranoia people, the world IS NOT out to get you!!!
Posted by geri | April 4, 2006 11:54 PM
Posted on April 4, 2006 23:54