Thursday 6 November 2008

The Horror, The Horror

Here's one to chill the blood. This ID business has to be stopped. It's preposterously expensive, it will do nothing but make life more unpleasant and inconvenient than it already is for the law-abiding, it will be utterly insecure, and it will hugely expand state surveillance while diminishing what remains of our individual liberties. In short, I'm agin it, and sincerely hope that, when Broon is finally dislodged, an incoming government scraps the whole thing as one of its first acts.

9 comments:

  1. I'm agin' it too, for all your reasons.

    It's also behind the zeitgeist: nobody's scared of terrorists any more, they're scared of having no money. If this costs the individual it's got no chance (I hope).

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  2. Yep I think the money's the one thing that might sink it - especially as the government's boracic too...

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  3. Agreed, but imho we also need something more proactive. I'm thinking of privacy laws which restrict the information that anyone, especially companies and councils, can demand from an individual and on what can be done with the material. Otherwise, we'll end up with the whole thing being introduced by the back door each time we try to buy an airline ticket, rent a car, open a new account, etc. The government will try to "save" money" by getting companies to do their dirty work for them.

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  4. See Guido for the latest on this - some protesters have stolen the Home Secretary's fingerprints....

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  5. Excellent! And I fear you're probably right Mark...

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  6. The home Secs got fingers? I thought she had claws. What I want to know is which nosey sods have been looking at my Amazon wish list.

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  7. Are we seriously expected to believe that as the rotund Ms Smith wobbles 'round the country' looking for a kebab boutique (note the head & shoulders only shot), that she regularly has people coming up to her (odd in itself) and saying that they don't want to wait until 2012 for their ID cards. I just can't imagine 'people', other than the criminally insane, approaching this Gorgon, though I must admit that she fits-in nicely with her grim band of brothers.
    Anybody out there longing for 2012?

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  8. A word of caution, there is nothing basically wrong with identity cards, intelligently thought out, expertly produced and used in the correct way, they are a fact of life in Germany, you need at least to show a driving license to buy a mobile phone.
    It is when they are added to the already unforgivable intrusion into privacy, the states childish attemts to order our habits and the rapid loss of human rights that they become a bridge too far.

    It is not just central government who are guilty, the ethos has permeated its way down to all levels of the civil service and local government. The regular airing of figures showing the levels of abuse suffered by government employees whilst no doubt basically true are now, I suspect being used politically to bring about even more state suppression, and that is what it has now become.

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  9. I predict Cameron will implement ID cards with gusto. DC: " I know i was against ID cards five minutes ago bla bla but now circumstances have changed and we must move with change bla bla." That's if he gets in of course.

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