UK Observer: This ID project is even more sinister than we first thought

[seafan]

This ID project is even more sinister than we first thought

Henry Porter
Sunday March 19, 2006
The Observer


snip

Reading the Identity Cards Bill, as it pinged between the House of Commons and the Lords last week,....

snip

Oddly enough, the compulsory provision of personal information to the government database is not the greatest threat to our freedom, though it is in itself a substantial one. The real menace comes when the ID card scheme begins to track everyone's movements and transactions, the details of which will kept on the database for as long as the Home Office desires.
Over the past few weeks, an anonymous email has been doing a very good job of enlightening people on how invasive the ID card will be. 'Private businesses,' says the writer, 'are going to be given access to the national identity register 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 Oystercard or supermarket loyalty card or driving licence, you will have to present your card.'

You will need the card when you receive prescription drugs, when you withdraw a relatively small amount of money from a bank, check into hospital, get your car unclamped, apply for a fishing licence, buy a round of drinks (if you need to prove you're over 18), set up an internet account, fix a residents' parking permit or take out insurance.
Every time that card is swiped, the central database logs the transaction so that an accurate plot of your life is drawn. The state will know everything that it needs to know; so will big corporations, the police, the Inland Revenue, HM Customs, MI5 and any damned official or commercial busybody that wants access to your life. The government and Home Office have presented this as an incidental benefit, but it is at the heart of their purpose.

snip

.....the government still maintains the fiction that the ID card is defence against identity theft and terrorism. The 7 July bombers would not have been deterred by a piece of plastic. And it is clear that the claim about protecting your identity is also rubbish because chip-and-pin technology has already been compromised by organised criminals. What remains is the ceaseless monitoring of people's lives. That is what the government is forcing on us.

Practically every week in these columns, I urge you to pay attention to the government's theft of our liberties. I would feel a bore and an obsessive if I hadn't pored over the ID card bill last week and read Hansard's account of the exchanges in both houses. One of the most chilling passages in the bill is section 13 which deals with the 'invalidity and surrender' of ID cards, which, in effect, describes the withdrawal of a person's identity by the state. For, without this card, it will be almost impossible to function, to exist as a citizen in the UK. Despite the cost to you, this card will not be your property.

snip

Outside parliament, what needs to happen is the formation of the broadest possible front against these changes, a movement which deploys the most principled democratic minds in the country to argue with the lazy and stupid view that if you've got nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear from Labour's attack on liberty. I believe that will happen.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1734265,00.html

(all emphases added)

[Greeby]

1. Words to the Lords

Stand firm

[Flabbergasted]

2. Are there any non-Orwellian countries around I can move to.....?

[Mythsaje]

3. Well, at least the Brits still have a functioning Press...

Ours has gone down for the third time.

[TheBaldyMan]

4. all the more reason to snap it in half when it's issued.

Fuck them - I already have ID and if the UK govt. think I'm going to fork out £300 quid to be monitored by big brother they can, to paraphrase Dick Cheney, "Go fuck themselves" .

[rman]

5. I'm afraid that before long, you'll need the card

to receive anything.
There have been ample warnings about this all throughout history.

Everyone presumed suspect, Big Brother will be watching all of us, and no-one will be watching Big Brother. Democracy (or what has to pass for it) was sort of nice while it lasted.

[Briar]

6. Presumed guilty

and constantly having to prove ourselves innocent every second of the day and night.