Beware ID card “creep”
Posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 by Home Office WatchCategory: ID Cards
How many “soft releases” does the Government’s ID card scheme need?
It was introduced in November 2008 - but “only” for foreign nationals who come to the UK under a visa, to work, study or marry.
Then this autumn, “only” airside workers at Manchester and London City airports were selected as the scheme’s next guinea pigs.
Not content with targeting people on the basis of nationality or occupation, Jacqui Smith has announced her latest “volunteers”: the City of Manchester. Oh, and young people.
From The Guardian:
“The Home Office said it was trying to identify some parts of the country where people would be able to apply for ID cards on a voluntary basis from the end of this year.
“There are already plans to make them available to young people on a nationwide basis from 2010, before offering them to all adults over the following two years.
“But Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, also wants to establish “beacon areas” where all adults would be free to apply for one before the national roll-out. On a regional visit today, she said that Manchester was “in the running” to be one of these areas.”
Obviously the aim is for us all to have one, but with 50,000 ID cards planned to have been issued to foreign nationals by April, we’re way past the thin end of the wedge already…
You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.
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February 1st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I hope all Mancunian readers of this blog will help Manchester NO2ID extinguish this “beacon” of state control!
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Approaching my 70th birthday I decided to renew my driving license on line. Before I could do so I was required to jump through many hoops about myself so that I could be issued with a Gateway ID card so that I can “connect to Government” Ah, if only….. I feel this is ID by stealth. I was asked a lot of questions I view as irrelevant to my right to hold a driving license, including particulars of my place of birth, and details of my parents. Now my new driving license shows my place of birth (not the UK) which is only an indication of where my mother was at the time, not proof of my nationality or of my loyalty. What is the governement thinking of? ID cards do nothing to increase national security and are an invitation to the unscrupulous (who could be in government) to abuse the knowledge in order to oppress and control.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
As New Labour moves towards 1984 by stealth, voters should remember that the National Socialist party took control of Germany in 1933 by similar stealthy means.
The only consolation is that the 1984 project is, like so many other New Labour schemes, vastly overspent, incompetently administered and 25 years late in delivery.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
This tendency to introduce measures by stealth is very worrying. There is a determination within Government to introduce ID cards irrespective of the public’s wishes and the considerable from other political parties and civil liberties groups. One really wonders what lies behind their commitment to this particular cause. It makes me - and many others - very uneasy. The question is, what can be done. Petitions and letters to MPs etc., appear to achieve little (nothing!).
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
On a sidenote regarding the theft of information/valuable computer equipment, we all know thousands of computers/laptops have been lost since 2002 as the article below attests. But - what we are also forgetting to factor in here, in terms of pure waste - is the thousands of laptops and digital cameras that have been given to schools. I can say, on good authority, that they’re stolen so often nobody bothers to record their being lost any more.
Just useful info to know. Thanks Blair.
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
i think it good
February 2nd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
The comment from Catherine Millar has got me worried.
I will be 70 later this year and will have to apply to renew my driving licence.
What on earth have the details of my parents
(both of whom died many years ago)have to do with my competence to drive a motor vehicle?
How long before this Government withholds driving licences until we supply such irrelevant personal details.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:39 pm
The obvious solution is to oust this type of Government at the next election , before they finalise this unwarranted invasion of our privacy.
Nothing is said in this latest message from the Liberal Democrats about whether the acquisition of an ID card will cost the individual anything. If not (the Government will pay for it), just remember it is the taxpayers’ money which is being spent.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I live in Manchester and I for one will not be “voluntarily” getting an ID card. If push comes to shove I will move to bide my time; that or fight from the centre of the battle.
What will happen is that nobody will provide you any service without “acceptable” ID, which will be the ID card only, and we will still be told that they are “voluntary”, making living without one very difficult.
Underhand, deceitful, misguided attempt to control and monitor us. If you buy one of these cards you are putting a nail into the coffin of liberty.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:06 pm
i think the goverment should support as there are doing a good job. also the public should as well.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 pm
How long until the General Election? And what kind of State will Britain be by the time it arrives? So far over 3,000 new laws: how ever did we survive the previous 1,000 years? Over 200 different people and organisations allowed unfettered access to our homes. DNA and fingerprints of innocent people held on databases. Automatic arrest for even the most trivial crimes. Fines and taxes and then even more taxes. The unions are now putting up a smokescreen about foriegn workers.(watch that one) Finally the Home Office determined to tag and catalogue every man, woman and child in the land;there will be no compulsion to carry one of these cards but life will be virtually impossible without one. This campaign needs to step up a gear. Is it still legal for me to say that or do I risk arrest for sedition?
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Do we really need ID cards if it is supposed to offer protection? Protection from what?
Do we need ID cards as well as UK passports as a means of identification? There is a logic in the argument somewhere, but is this little short of a secret police/big brother state?
We already have security cameras (for good reason if it helps solve crime), but will ID cards serve a similar purpose? Debatable.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:32 am
I think you should all be made aware that there is a, for now “voluntary”, scheme which requires a printer to identify his customers and to check their financial status, before printing anything.
I expect butchers will be next, and grocers. Can you ID yourself at your local supermarket?
February 8th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) ‘CHECK’ my foot
Another stealth measure is the CIB ‘check’ It appears now that this is required of nearly everyone in work voluntary or otherwise.
loads of ID type information is stored in the CIB database.
HELLO!! THIS IS NOT A ‘CHECK’ (A CHECK MEANS THAT ONE’S INFO IS ‘CHECKED’ AND IF IT’S OK ONE’s ALLOWED TO PROCEED SUCH AS AT AN OLD STYLE TICKET BARRIER OR PASSPORT CONTROL.
NO, THIS IS CIB EXTRACTION IE PERSONAL DATA IS EXTRACTED FROM YOU AND STORED ON YES ANOTHER DATABASE(a check thrown in as an extra).
February 16th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
A question not asked enough: who would own the ID card? Answer: the government, of course. After the card has been in general use we come to realise it is required for many day-to-day actions. Then the government - which owns our card - determines we have been naughty and decides it should be confiscated (like it can with our passport). Suddenly we have no identity. I remain unconvinced there is a need for the ID card. Roll-on general election and we can remove these control freaks.