Wednesday, December 15, 2004
No opposition on the ID card debate
INteresting newsnight debate last night. It seems that the Tories are going to support Blairs ID card idea because they don't want to be seen as soft on terror this close to the election. There were several unnamed sources who were either going to be missing in the vote on friday, or were going to 'vote holding their nose'. Howard has come out for the cards, and the party (for the moment) is going to stick with him.
Jack Straw, Mr Blunkett's predecessor as home secretary, first floated the idea of a "citizen's access card" shortly after Labour came to power in 1997. The idea was quietly shelved, until the home affairs select committee last year backed the idea of an "entitlement card" as a measure towards checking immigration flows - but also valid for library lending, NHS treatment and benefits claims.
Although that card was intended to voluntary, the home secretary accepted it would be hard to prevent an entitlement access card becoming mandatory. Additionally, there would be the cost of hi-tech security devices, such as machine-verifiable photographs, fingerprints or even iris recognition.
The card would also require the sharing of personal information data across Whitehall departments and local authorities, which, although the prime minister expressed his favour of it, again generated concerns from civil liberty groups. And, more importantly, it raised the possibility of expensive legal actions against the home office if the trillions of pieces of information held on individuals were incorrect, not updated or missing.
After the September 11 attacks, one of Mr Blunkett's first actions was to put forward the idea of an ID card again, despite warnings that organised terrorists were unlikely to deterred by the prospect of forging a piece of plastic.
Although the Superintendents Association and the Police Federation - essentially the unions of low-ranking officers - have expressed support for the scheme, more senior police have acknowledged the scope for greater social and racial conflict that the cards could spark. Mr Blunkett has in the past conceded that police would not be given the powers simply to stop people on the streets and demand to "see their papers".
Not that so-called "internal passports" are a merely a pet project of a Labour government. The former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Lilley favoured the idea in the 1980s, but the police told him the idea was unhelpful.
In the dog days of John Major's government, then home secretary Michael Howard, on the back of introducing photographic driving licences, proposed an "anti-crime" ID card, only to be shouted down in cabinet by libertarian colleagues.
And, of course, Mrs Thatcher wanted a football supporters' identity card at the height of the 1980s hooligan terrace culture.
Britain abandoned its war-time identity papers, which were used for receiving rations, 50 years ago, although having no form of state-authorised identity card beyond the simple national insurance number puts the UK out of step with 11 of the 15 EU states.
How Britain compares with other countries:
· France: Voluntary ID cards with photographs give access to health, education, voting rights, and are needed for bank and post office transactions, making the carrying of the French card near universal. The police are entitled to stop citizens and demand identification.·Germany: ID cards are compulsory, and citizens must remember a PIN number to accompany them in order to obtain local government services.
· Belgium: mandatory ID cards must be presented to the police if demanded, and detail the citizen's blood group, as well as giving acces to government services.
· Italy: a voluntary ID card that can be used as passport across the EU.
· Netherlands: similar to Italy.
· Portugal: compulsory ID cards with contain both photograph and fingerprints.
· Australia: no ID cards.
· New Zealand: no ID cards.
· USA: no ID cards, although the social security number is essential for most transactions, and much more closely guarded than its British equivalent. Photographic driving licences are so universal they act as virtual unofficial ID cards.
· Japan: No ID cards.
My problem is not only one of the nanny state issues, and how much the government know about me (I don't even like having store cards for supermarkets) it's the cost. No one seems to have really latched on to this much. The final bill is said to be £3 billion , but the final cost is likely (on past track record of Governemtn technological implementations) to be twice that. So thats £6 billion. That is before every government department, every hospital, every police station and every job centre installs the reader machines.
I don't know about you, but I reckon I can find better things to do with £6 billion to combat 'terror'.
Jack Straw, Mr Blunkett's predecessor as home secretary, first floated the idea of a "citizen's access card" shortly after Labour came to power in 1997. The idea was quietly shelved, until the home affairs select committee last year backed the idea of an "entitlement card" as a measure towards checking immigration flows - but also valid for library lending, NHS treatment and benefits claims.
Although that card was intended to voluntary, the home secretary accepted it would be hard to prevent an entitlement access card becoming mandatory. Additionally, there would be the cost of hi-tech security devices, such as machine-verifiable photographs, fingerprints or even iris recognition.
The card would also require the sharing of personal information data across Whitehall departments and local authorities, which, although the prime minister expressed his favour of it, again generated concerns from civil liberty groups. And, more importantly, it raised the possibility of expensive legal actions against the home office if the trillions of pieces of information held on individuals were incorrect, not updated or missing.
After the September 11 attacks, one of Mr Blunkett's first actions was to put forward the idea of an ID card again, despite warnings that organised terrorists were unlikely to deterred by the prospect of forging a piece of plastic.
Although the Superintendents Association and the Police Federation - essentially the unions of low-ranking officers - have expressed support for the scheme, more senior police have acknowledged the scope for greater social and racial conflict that the cards could spark. Mr Blunkett has in the past conceded that police would not be given the powers simply to stop people on the streets and demand to "see their papers".
Not that so-called "internal passports" are a merely a pet project of a Labour government. The former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Lilley favoured the idea in the 1980s, but the police told him the idea was unhelpful.
In the dog days of John Major's government, then home secretary Michael Howard, on the back of introducing photographic driving licences, proposed an "anti-crime" ID card, only to be shouted down in cabinet by libertarian colleagues.
And, of course, Mrs Thatcher wanted a football supporters' identity card at the height of the 1980s hooligan terrace culture.
Britain abandoned its war-time identity papers, which were used for receiving rations, 50 years ago, although having no form of state-authorised identity card beyond the simple national insurance number puts the UK out of step with 11 of the 15 EU states.
How Britain compares with other countries:
· France: Voluntary ID cards with photographs give access to health, education, voting rights, and are needed for bank and post office transactions, making the carrying of the French card near universal. The police are entitled to stop citizens and demand identification.·Germany: ID cards are compulsory, and citizens must remember a PIN number to accompany them in order to obtain local government services.
· Belgium: mandatory ID cards must be presented to the police if demanded, and detail the citizen's blood group, as well as giving acces to government services.
· Italy: a voluntary ID card that can be used as passport across the EU.
· Netherlands: similar to Italy.
· Portugal: compulsory ID cards with contain both photograph and fingerprints.
· Australia: no ID cards.
· New Zealand: no ID cards.
· USA: no ID cards, although the social security number is essential for most transactions, and much more closely guarded than its British equivalent. Photographic driving licences are so universal they act as virtual unofficial ID cards.
· Japan: No ID cards.
My problem is not only one of the nanny state issues, and how much the government know about me (I don't even like having store cards for supermarkets) it's the cost. No one seems to have really latched on to this much. The final bill is said to be £3 billion , but the final cost is likely (on past track record of Governemtn technological implementations) to be twice that. So thats £6 billion. That is before every government department, every hospital, every police station and every job centre installs the reader machines.
I don't know about you, but I reckon I can find better things to do with £6 billion to combat 'terror'.
// posted by Chase @ 12/15/2004 08:56:00 am 
