Thursday, March 06, 2008

The government peddling ID Cards again

As The Nameless One reports, the government are attempting to peddle the ID cards through a "soft sell" route.
According to Sky News, government ministers are changing their tack on ID cards. Instead of blatantly trying to ram them down our throats through fear, they are going to use a softer sell to ram them down our throats.
Instead of government ministers and police officers talking tough and insisting they need us to carry ID cards to beat terrorism, the emphasis will shift to persuading us that we'll be missing out if we fail to sign up to the scheme.

My gut instinct says "I’ll miss out then, thank you very much."

But the government has anticipated that sort of response. And now we have the muted threat behind the ID card scheme—that you are just going to miss out on some things, but really miss out on crucial things:
'Entitlement' seems to be the buzzword. The card being portrayed as the way we can access the state benefits and public services that we're entitled to.

Right. So I still have to pay for an ID card to access services that I am already entitled to and have already paid for. Jesus Christ, that is a bit of a mind fuck. It is like Tesco saying "I know you’ve just bought your weekly shop, paid for it ‘n’ all, but we’re not going to let you take those goods until that you are entitled to and have paid for until you have signed up for a Clubcard. Oh, and we are going to charge you a small fucking fortune for the Clubcard as well."They'd be out of business within a week.

Quite. And the Libertarian Party are, naturally, against ID cards on principle.
The UK Libertarian Party today condemned the Labour government's proposals to introduce ID cards through a “soft sell”.

Party Leader, Patrick Vessey, said,
“Both ID cards and the accompanying database fundamentally change the relationship between individuals and the state.

“The Libertarian Party is utterly opposed to this cataloguing of the people of Britain.

“In a truly free society, and provided that they harm nobody else by doing so, every person should be able to go where they like, and call themselves what they like, without having to beg permission of anyone else.

“Instead, the Labour government feels justified in tagging and labelling us as though we were mere livestock—bovine automata to be herded and tracked at our masters' convenience.”

We are ruled by evil idiots. And I haven't even commented on the death of Parliament yet...


Anonymous said...

'Death of Parliament': I await your comments with great interest.

Just wondering whether anyone's going to actually attempt to resist the enslavement of the UK...

Mark Wadsworth said...

We all have to 'lose' our passports or leave them in the washing machine by accident or something and apply for a new ten-year one this year before all this new crap comes in.

Nick said...

Do you think that tax cuts are a good idea whilst maintaining services?

10 out of 10 tax payers think this is correct.

Cut taxes.

It's the same polling logic as

Do you you think ID cards help in fitting benefit fraud?


The Aberdonian said...

ID cards certainly do not combat terrorism. The Spanish have cards but has ETA been defeated after all these years?

Facist wankers Labour are increasingly becoming.

Machiavelli's Understudy said...


Labour moved on from 'terrorism' as a front for an identity register long ago. They moved on to 'combating benefit fraud', which fizzled out just before the hoo-hah about incompetent state data management (although the rational case against it would have been that benefit fraud is largely about claimants' circumstances, not their identities) and then audaciously went on to become "we need an ID register precisely because of lost data- it'll protect your identity". Which the public, despite their stupidity, quickly saw as 'bollocks'.

And it is on that tack that I think the LP has to present its case as more than a point of principle- it has to join a pragmatic argument with its principled position, ie "ID cards are wrong because they'll cost XYZ, won't prevent terrorist atrocities (as per Madrid) and will cause countless cases of bungled identity- our opposition stems from the principle that your identity is yours to keep and when it is taken from you by the state, it can only mean bad things will inevitably happen".

I just don't think the public will buy the principle argument first and foremost. They're all for wanting to keep their own rights whilst at the same time quite happy to give away everyone else's- hence coming full circle on themselves in ID card polling.

Mark Wadsworth said...

What MU says. The sensible pragmatic approach is that ID cards won't achieve anything ... apart from lots of cushy jobs for failed labour politicians like David Blumkett. Which happily enough ends up the same as the purist libertarian approach.

mitch said...

Just a point but how do you prove who you are ? utility bills? driving license? easily faked, NI number? given away.
What a fuckin stupid idea only a moron could think this will work....oh yeah sorry,

Budgie said...

No one can steal my identity.

What can be stolen are the details of myself that the government forces me to hand over to them (and to some businesses, like banks).

Hence the government wants an ID card/database system to cover for its own incompetence.

Cyclefree said...

You can apply for a new passport now anyway so do it. That way you get 10 yrs 9 months (from the unexpired time on your old one) grace. For those with one Irish grandparent, apply for an Irish passport. And as for entitlement to services - pah! The NHS will be down the swannee before then anyway & what other services do they provide? If they make it compulsory to use it for all transactions time to start throwing paving stones at them or leave the country.

El Draque said...

Why not just tattoo the number on our arms? Completely indelible - never comes off. I've seen the evidence.

Anonymous said...

Funny how your identity doesn't appear to be a problem when they are taxing you. It is then remarkably easy to prove who you are.

Vicola said...

I'm also 'missing out' on the chance to develop a limp by not volunteering to have my leg amputated and am missing out on the chance to lose some teeth by not calling a Hell's Angel a fat prick. Just because you're 'missing out' on something, doesn't neccessarily mean you would want in the first place. And I'm quite happy to miss out on the government's chance to charge me several days salary in order ot issue me with a piece of plastic that will store details I don't want them to have and achieve the square root of fuck all.

