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17/05/2005
Playing cards
Despite a hobbled majority and disagreement within the ranks, the Government – perhaps out of some misplaced sense of machismo – is determined to push ahead with its plans for ID cards. In her speech today, QEII will announce [and indeed did announce - Ed.] that they are on the agenda for the next parliament.
We sigh in collective exasperation. What a great waste of time; what a stupid, feeble, cosmetic, gesture; what an absolute stinker of a policy these ID cards are.
The government intends to count us. They then want to write down our names and details and – as if by some miracle of modern security – are convinced that this process will make the UK more secure.
Which is of course, utter, laughable nonsense. The US and Spain both had ID cards, yet still those countries suffered massive and disasterous security breaches. ID cards did not prevent terrorist attacks there - why on earth should anyone think they would work here?
ID cards do not insulate a country against terror attacks. However, what ID cards do do is change the relationship between the individual and the state. Why? Because what we will have if the home secretary gets his way is a thing in your wallet / purse without which you will be considered incomplete. This is horrendous - an individual should not need to be validated by the production of a document. The command to “show me your papers” looms menacingly in the distance.
The pro-lobby say that this is nonsense. Civil liberties? Pah! ID cards, they claim, will contain no more information than is currently held on a UK passport. But if this is the case, why on earth do we need ID cards in the first place? In simple terms, this argument can be summed up as;
-- if (contents ID card) = (contents passport), then ID card = pointless Labour brain fart.
In short, ID cards are anti-libertarian, will not make us any safer, will cost innumerable billions of pounds, will cause yet more splits in the government and are quite obviously only on the agenda to make Tony Blair look tough.
This is a waste of time and money. National security is being used by the Labour leadership as a political tool, and playing politics with national security is as disgraceful as it is negligent. The Iraq dossier fiasco should have taught them that.
Apparently it has not.
Yours etc,
Spinoff.
13:30 Posted in News | Permalink | Email this
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Comments
The US does not have ID cards (the 9/11 terrorists did possess valid passports, however). Nor does any other Common Law country possess these abominations.
Posted by: Agent Smith | 23/05/2005