I know we mostly think of him as the loveable fool who’s hosted a couple of Have I Got News For Yous, but sometimes he speaks incredibly good sense for a Tory. His stance on ID cards is one of those times.
We can now only hope that there are members of the upper house who can see sense and send this scare mongering expensive curbing of our civil liberties to the bottom of the Thames (or at the very least into a nice recycling bin).
Boris on ID Cards
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2 responses to “Boris on ID Cards”
Don’t agree.
Boris’s “reasons” against the idea are that he’s, um, against the idea, but fails to give a convincing argument.
Yes, it won’t help on terrorism, but I do know it’ll be a damn sight better to prove who I am than finding a few utility bills to sign up for a mobile phone.
It’ll help combat identity theft, will cut down on benefit fraud, will make form filling much easier, and is altogether a Good Thing.
James, Boris may not quite have explained to your satisfaction but he is simply opposed to use becoming a quasi-police state where we might be forced to produce an identity card on demand. We don’t have to currently.
The fact that you have problems signing up for a mobile phone is neither here nor there. If your passport or driving licence isn’t good enough for a service provider, then they don’t deserve your custom. If you want to take part in voluntary scheme, then get a passport (I think you may already have one). Airlines seem to believe them secure enough to let you fly with them, and they’re really on the front line of terrorist threats as we know to our cost.
An ID Card will make not a single jot of difference to benefit fraud, the vast proportion of which is due to people lying. It’s estimated that less than one percent of fraud is ID related. Instead it’s the likes of “me” going to claim unemployment benefit whilst doing jobs for cash. Blunkett himself has admitted as much.
The fact that the a bit of form filling is made slightly easier is not a reason for the government to keep a large database full of information on me, that I have no access to, but that will be accessible to thousands (possibly tens of thousands – and why should, say, Orange or T-Mobile be able to check my records on a government database? Or indeed the assistant at my local Blockbuster, who also demand proof of residence if I wish to join?).
It’s a scheme that’ll cost a minimum of £5.5bn to the country – almost certainly much more – and at least £35-40 per individual. If we’ve got £5.5bn kicking around, a few more policemen with better equipment and resources would seem to be a more sensible idea. It’s a scheme that simply removes liberties we’ve had in this country for hundreds of years, and is simply designed to scare the general public into thinking we’re protecting ourselves from terrorists and “asylum seekers”. It’s designed to win the votes of Daily Mail readers in the May general election.