ID Cards
With the Lords caving to the apparently well meaning but woefully misguided Commons this week on ID cards, we now face the prospect of compulsory ID cards (but only on renewal of passports) in 2010.
So. Let’s recap - 2010 - that’s four years from now. There’s a chance that Labour might lose the election, admittedly a small one, but the chance is there. So, if the Tories get in, there’s a very good chance this legislation will be repealed. The Tories famously don’t run the country according to an idealogy - conservatism by its nature is aimed at taking government out of people’s lives, rather than penetrating it into every facet of existence as the current Government does. There are arguments for and against this type of government, but I think what we’re seeing at the moment is showing what happens when a semi-socialist government, working with the rewarmed meals prepared by a Conservative government, is suddenly thrust into a situation of percieved threat.
The society that spends, the society that builds safety nets for its citizens and pushes its way into every corner of their existence, from the pub to the school to the hospital to the street itself (specifically around Parliament, where you’re still not allowed to protest without permission), is a society where an external threat can become an excuse for continuing a drift toward state control.
Every single possible argument for an ID card has been thoroughly debunked. There is literally no point to doing this, especially over the course of what is likely to be at least a decade - my passport runs out in 2012, and when I go to renew it, I intend to work my way up through every layer of bureaucracy possible, arguing the toss at each stage about why I need to have an ID card (at £30-90 expense to me, and that’s the Home Office estimate, so on past performance expect to add at least 50% to that figure). If they refuse to give me a passport, I will take my case to my MP. Then onward from there.
This will do nothing to protect the UK, or its citizens. The threat to the UK is real, but ID cards are not the answer. Addressing our foreign policy and the problems of racial and religious integration within our own borders is where this money should be going.
And don’t get me started on the incredible dangers of governments with four year terms introducing legislation with implications far beyond their incredibly short tenures. If you’re still sitting there reading this, and you don’t get what all the fuss about is, I’d suggest you do a few things.
1) Go and read everything the The Chicken Yoghurt has written on ID cards. Justin is one of our freedom of speech mine canaries - when this site goes offline, you’ll know the knock on the door in the night is not long in coming.
2) Read Charlie Stross’s piece on ID cards, in which he elegantly states what ID cards mean to you, as Joe Bloggs, British citizen.
3) Go and read the Home Office FAQ on ID cards, and tell me if you can find a solid reason for their introduction amid the spin. This site is particularly pernicious, because nearly every sentence is constructed to blend the ideas of identity theft, terror and immigration into a single looming ‘bad thing’, then make it seem so reasonable that ID cards are the natural solution. It’s not reasonable. It’s essentially skewing the playing field. It goes something like this:
Government: Terrorism is bad. ID cards will stop the terrorists.
Reasonably switched on member of the public: Er, how, exactly?
Government:You want to stop terrorists, don’t you? Or do you want to put your life, and the lives of everyone around you at risk by not bowing down to our unstated, unsubstantiated, deeply flawed logic?
Public: Er, hold on a second…
Government: Too late, get an ID card now, or it’s £2500 in fines
4) Read 1984. Watch this film about despotism. Talk to people who have actually lived in a police state. Talk to people who grew up in the Thirties, the last time despotism prospered on a global scale because of the invocation of external and internal threats. Ask yourself at what point you will question whether it’s exactly right that something you used to take for granted has been taken away. Will it be when it is made punishable to criticise the government? Or when they take away your freedom to drive without being stopped at checkpoints and report your movements? We live in a liberal democracy, but it only takes a few reasonable sounding people with what seem like good intentions to take away your rights. They don’t come for free you know - it’s up to you to defend them when they’re being challenged.
And, despite the fact that most people couldn’t give a toss, they’re being challenged right now.
Originally posted at Happy Dave.
