ID Cards And On The Saga Goes

Original posting, January 2006

ID cards 'should be compulsory'

Lord Falconer

ID Cards - Home Office (UK)
ID Cards: An Action Network Briefing
ID Cards And The Saga Still Goes On...


The Identity Cards Act receives royal assent and becomes law:

30 March 2006

PATRIOT Act

David Cameron has told Parliament that plans to introduce identity cards risk ending up as a "monument to the failure of big government". He cited a report by the London School of Economics, which claims the scheme would cost between £10bn and £19bn over 10 years if the government followed its original plans.

Lord Falconer said the final decision rests with Parliament and has said ID cards should be made compulsory if introduced in the UK. Lord Falconer told the BBC that the only way (for the government) to get full benefit from the scheme was for people without a passport to carry one.

Is that a suggestion that UK citizens carry a valid passport - on their person? And when my passport expires? I will not have a valid passport, of course. And so into the trap. There is no choice.

Welcome to UQ (aka UK). Probably the most surveillance crazy country in the world.

The reason? Control of the masses.

The illusion is protection.

Never. Simply control.

When Blair's 'government' has gone the next pseudo-masters will not remove what has been forced upon us, even though publicly there remains opposition to ID cards.

What happens when ID cards are forced on us? Will I be arrested and locked up until I can prove who I am? And I imagine there will be plenty of police around to do that. Catch burglars, muggers, murderers? What? Who am I kidding? They are the difficult ones.

I have little objection to an ID card in principle if it is just that and NOT a smart card with all sorts of sensitive information about me. Like what is my political persuation? My attitude? Subversive tendencies if I don't toe the party line.

AND I DON’T PAY FOR ONE.

I find it totally objectionable to be expected to pay for the right to exist and live in my country of origin. My birth country.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the government backs ID cards and fears over civil liberties are "misplaced".

NO.

It is absolutely going to happen. I don’t know how this Blair could anticipate an easy ride. So many questions remain unanswered and will remain unanswered. That’s predictable. They can’t be answered without making a rotten situation even worse.

"Misplaced?"

What planet is he on. You’d imagine that there is enough of a problem with terrorism without waking the sleeping tiger of UQ-public!

To what country does Blair anticipate retiring?

There’s a hidden agenda, of course. I can’t begin to define it, but be assured it’s there.

Plans for ID cards have been rejected by the Lords, who want to know how much the project would cost. Tory leader David Cameron criticised the cost, citing a report which puts the price at £19bn over 10 years.

Lord Falconer told BBC Radio Four's Any Questions: "The question is should you require - and I think ultimately, unless there is compulsion, you won't get the benefits of an ID card system - is it right to compel those that don't have a passport also to get an ID card? I think it is, I think it will become inevitable that you need reliable means of identification, both to stop people stealing your identity, and also making it much, much easier for you to deal with the state. You won't every time you want to change something have to fill in a long form, life will just become much easier."

Here it is again: the implied suggestion that if you have a passport, you don't need an ID card. But, when the passport expires the situation changes. Technically, an expired passport means you don't have one. So you will be required to purchase an ID card before a new passport is authorised.

Renew your passport before it expires. That's too easy. You won't be 'allowed' to do that. You will be forced to 'purchase' the ID card before you can get a replacement passport. So you will be forced to have an ID card in addition to your passport. At cost. The passport is for travel abroad and the ID card to travel within UQ (aka UK).

And the possession of an ID card will make identity theft even easier. All the information anyone could ever want about you on one card. If you lose it? Well, that will be your fault, of course.

And as for government security of the information database? That's a joke before it even gets started.

Do you see the spin? The convenience of filling out forms. Not a problem. More forms are predicted. More information. Huge problem on it’s way. More work for an army of civil servants. Higher taxes to pay for it. Predicted costs can be reduced, but covertly paid for through taxation. And the result? Even costlier than before and we won’t know by how much.

The government engine gets bigger. More powerful. Identity theft: I spend an inordinate amount of time shredding junk mail to destroy the trail to me - as best I can. Now the government want me to carry around all this information on one card (one of the unanswered, actually ignored, questions?) to make it really easy to acquire the information to become me.

Ill thought through. Bad idea.

Unless you think BIG BROTHER.

So, spin it around: well considered plan. Great idea.

I had a dream last night - Blair resigned. Best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.

The lord chancellor said the final decision [a sinister final solution?] would rest with Parliament and he added:

"I think the government takes the view that to get the full benefits they [ID cards] will ultimately have to become compulsory."

Get that:

the government to get the full benefits

What's the odd £19bn? But, over 10 years of course. The lifetime of the next 'government'.

Mr Blair said that report was drawn up by someone who was a campaigner against ID cards on civil liberty grounds.

How about simply 'someone' simply opposed to the idea? The use of the term ‘campaigner’ is a slur against anyone opposed to Blair’s view. His ‘vision’. And 'someone' sounds like a lone individual. There are millions and millions of 'someones'.

Goal posts get moved. This (NEW Labour) government expects to be around in 10 years‘ time? Of course not. No chance of that. Start the machinery going though so that it cannot be stopped. It could be stopped. It just won't be.

Remember: Cameron is opposed to ID cards. We'll see. If he changes his tune then this supports the conspiracy theory claim that although labels change, governments are always the same.

There is only one 'government'.

Globally.

ID cards are simply another part of the Masterplan.

Whether you see any sense in this or not, at least think for yourself. Don't allow TV and 'newspapers' to seduce you and provide you with your opinon.

Your opinion. It's yours. Protect it fearlessly. Protect it jelously.

The Home Office estimates the scheme will cost about £584m to run each year, with each combined biometric passport and identity card costing £93.

That's a fairly precise estimate given that it may cost between £10bn and £19bn over 10 years.

The book’s open. Place your bets. Up or down? By how much?

My prediction is £1bn and each card costing around £500. Mind you, the cash cow will provide money that will be diverted somewhere else. Where? Who knows? That’s how the engine functions.

No one knows. Or by how much. Outside the very inner, inner-government.