ID cards by 2009
January 2007

We didn't care about ID cards until we read the details. Our unease became astonishment, then anger. Here's why we say no to ID cards for UK citizens.

Extrageographic See also: > ID comments > The Volunteer > Hamburg guide

At the UK's general election in 2005, nearly half of the population didn't bother to vote. Only 61% of the people in the UK turned out to cast their ballot. 36% of this 61% voted Labour.

But Tony Blair's undaunted - he's still thinking big. Which is lovely for him. Apart from when he comes up with misguided schemes which will affect the rest of us, curtail our freedoms and set Britain up as a police state.

Question: "Hang on!" We hear you cry. "If ID cards are so bad, why haven't we heard more about them?!"

Answer: Because the ID cards issue is complicated. And subtle. SUBTLE. The mass media doesn't do subtle or complicated - it takes too long, the audience doesn't care. We're too busy to vote.

The facts: Identity cards and the National Identity register

UK PM Tony Blair

Let's be clear. The government will be issuing ID cards to UK citizens from 2009. It will become compulsory for you to carry an ID card.

"Everyone over the age of 16 applying for a passport will have their details - including fingerprints, eye or facial scans - added to a National Identity register from 2008.

"The first identity cards will be issued in 2009, and from 2010 the Identity and Passport Service will issue 'significant volumes' of ID cards alongside British passports. For two years people will be able to opt out of having an ID card - but from 2010 anyone renewing or getting a passport will have to get one."

What's frightening is what's behind the ID cards - the giant new database of information about us all.

You will have to visit an enrolment centre to supply them with information about you. It will be stored by the government on the National Identity register, 50 categories of registrable fact on "three existing, separate government databases".

Your data will be available to businesses. More data can be added.

You can check these facts here:
http://www.identitycards.gov.uk/scheme-what-how.asp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3127696.stm

Well, so what? Who cares?!

Link: These people care - a few quotes picked from the thousands of comments left on UK media websites objecting to the introduction of ID cards.

Before we get to the objections, let's list why the government says we need compulsory identity cards and the National Identity register.

For: The UK government says ID cards will:

Help protect people from identity fraud and theft
Ensure that people are who they say they are
Tackle illegal working and immigration abuse
Disrupt the use of false and multiple identities by criminals and those involved in terrorist activity
Ensure free public services are only used by those entitled to them
Enable easier access to public services.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/passports-and
-immigration/id-cards/why-we-need-id-cards/

UK PM Tony Blair

1. Liberty’s concerns about the National ID Register and ID cards:

They will fundamentally change the relationship between individual and state.
They will have a detrimental impact on race relations and will adversely affect vulnerable groups in society.
They will intrude on privacy as the amount of information held on the database and the uses made of that information will increase dramatically.
The Government’s poor record on IT projects makes this a huge financial risk.

2. We do not accept that ID cards will have any particular benefit:

Arguments that they will protect the UK from terrorist attack are unconvincing. The men responsible for the 9/11 and Madrid terrorist attacks had valid identification.
They will not help fight crime but will be counterproductive, as they will deflect financial and policing resources away from crime prevention and detection.
They will have minimal impact on benefit fraud, as this is usually about financial circumstances rather than identity.
Most identity fraud takes place remotely, online, over the phone or using false ‘seed’ documents (driving licences, passports and so on). Identity cards will not address this.
They will have no impact on illegal immigration as asylum seekers have been required to carry ID cards since 2000.

3. The Identity Cards Bill is flawed:

Too much detail is retained for regulation.
‘Safeguards’ protecting against the need to carry cards fall away when the cards become compulsory.
Criminal and civil penalties are excessive.
There is no auditing process to ensure information is accurate.
Information sharing powers are too broad.
The Identity Card Commissioner has insufficient power.

http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news-and
-events/1-press-releases/2006/peers-compromise-on-id-cards.shtml

Why we object to ID cards and the government database

ID cards can be compared to car licence plates. They don’t stop you crashing the car.

No government can be as creative, fast or inventive as a clever young person. They'll tell you they can - but they can't. Criminals will still break the law and law abiding people's details will be available to criminals, corrupt officials and big business on a database.

Where there's a will there's a way - a huge electronic database is a bad idea - once cracked, unlike paper files, - huge amounts of data can be downloaded.

There's always a way. Databases will be cracked. So why are we getting the database? Because the politicians don't know computers. Because they're authoritarians. They like power. And some may even want to discourage dissent.

Tony Blair may be trying push this through with the best of intentions but it means a subtle shift of power - solidifying the power of the state over the people.

Done nothing wrong? Then you've got nothing to fear from government officials having easy access to a detailed picture of your life, preferences and movements!

Except you might have in a few years time, when laws are changed by governments that are not as pleasant as this one.

Won't happen? It could. It has. Sixty years ago Nazi Germany outlawed Jews, then homosexuals, then modern artists, then anyone they didn't like the look of...

The state should answer to you - law abiding citizen. You should not answer to the state.

ID cards are so wrong in so many ways. There are so many compelling arguments against them - see the links, below.

Crime is the price we pay for civil liberties - for having a degree of freedom. A huge vulnerable database is not the answer. And turns us from citizens into suspects. Us having to prove who we are to bureaucrats who are just as corruptible as anyone else. The government can't tell us how the information will be used in the future. They don't know who'll be in power. It seems they really do want to be 'Big Brother'.

Why are ID cards and a huge database really being brought in?

Because...

Tony Blair thinks he's doing the right thing.
Tony Blair is looking for a legacy.
He wants to look popular.
He has not understood the technology.
Big business can smell cash contracts.
Big business wants your information so that you can be controlled (marketed to etc) more easily.
We (the public) have become too complacent.
The government have become cut-off and arrogant.
The government have become authoritarian and short-sighted.
Some politicians want to discourage dissent.
Some government departments would like to know more about you.

See these links:

Extrageographic: A few quotes picked from the thousands of comments left on UK media websites objecting to the introduction of ID cards.

Also:

No to ID: the reasons why they object

http://www.no2id.net/news/newsblog/index.php

http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/

David Mery's real life beauracratic / police nightmare

David Mery's useful links

ID cards don't work – even Tony says so

Tony Blair on ID cards, with lots of comments

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/F1746068

Tony Blair email exchange on ID

ID cards debate - Sunderland

The limits of liberty: A collection of articles about ID cards, inc:
'We’re all suspects now'

Henry Porter at the Guardian