Playing your ID Card

ID Cards are now back on the agenda, with Charles Clarke pushing ahead with great gusto. The New Labour thinking is that new technology will help them solve all old problems, like where are the undesirables. These are allegedly Al Quaeda fifth columnists, illegal immigrants, and "bogus" asylum seekers. The government hopes to clean up here.

My problem with all this is trust. First, how is Mr. Clarke going to implement this law, assuming he gets it through Parliament. Is he going to have round-up squads, clearing the streets of people who don't have the right papers to get an ID card? Are the police going to be asked to be complicit in this? Probably! The Home Office should be getting their own priorities right by really checking the ports. The ID nonsense will cost millions if not billions. Surely a bruiser like Clarke could get his mind around employing more immigration officers that are paid well so feel good about their job, instead of cutting the force back to concentrate on Heathrow only.

Second, is this ID stuff going to be used by government departments to keep track of people and their daily affairs? My trust in New Labour is fairly low, not through any paranoia but by their actions, which have shown deviousness and sophistry.

See my favourite link to NO2ID. Here is a link about Charles Clarke.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4577087.stm

Posted in: Charles Clarke,Home Office,ID cards,New Labour,NO2ID