ID cards: A rant
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizziecThe BBC news story about last night's ID card vote.
It makes me really quite stompy, and I know that I am not the only one.
So now we get a seperate law before it is made compulsorary. Whoopdedoo. How is that going to help when from 2009 you will not be allowed to get a passport without also getting an ID card. If you cannot leave the country without a passport and you cannot get a passport without getting an ID card it will be a short time before everyone has one anyway.
As for the "it will stop terrorism" issue, don't even get me started. The Madrid bombers had valid Spanish ID, the July bombers were all UK citizens. I do not see how having ID cards would have stopped these atrocities.
It will stop identity theft? I don't think so. It will only be a short amount of time before this too will be forged, except now they will be supposedly fool-proof. If your identity is stolen with a forged card then how long will it take you to get it back - if someone has one of these pieces of plastic then they must be who they say they are.
Let's not even mention how little I trust this or any other government with biometric data on me, let alone data on me stored on one of those Oh-So-Reliable government IT projects.
Oh for pity's sake. How stupid do the Government think we are?
The report is full of little quotes from various organisations. Let's start with the one from Home Office minister Andy Burnham. Support, apparently is "Solidifying" and the majority of a whole 31 MPs means that "We think it gives the vote a very clear mandate going forward".
Let's now examine what "mandate" means a clear authorization or direction...the authorization to act given by a constituency to its elected representative (sourced from dictionary.com)
So the fact that a government, who a minority of the UK voted for, have won a vote gives them a mandate - we, the people, apparently support them.
Except, oh wait! We don't! Shock horror.
According to a poll by yougov if the scheme cost £6bn - "a figure that some ministers have talked about" - then public support for it was at "2 to 1 against", and when you move to the figures that the LSE* and others have been talking about, £10bn+ then we are at a figure of "8 to 1 against"
What this tells me is that the esteemed Home Office Minister has a different understanding of mandate. A slim majority of a government a minority elected into office voted for something that at least two thirds of the country are against.
Doesn't sound like a mandate to me.
*not even mentioning that the LSE now refuses to release another figure on the cost owing to the high levels of secrecy from the government about how the project will go ahead. Many officials from LSE have been scathing of planning for this project owing to "contradictions, guesswork and wishful thinking" on the part of the Government.
[Edit] This is quite interesting for looking at the views of the public on ID cards
It makes me really quite stompy, and I know that I am not the only one.
So now we get a seperate law before it is made compulsorary. Whoopdedoo. How is that going to help when from 2009 you will not be allowed to get a passport without also getting an ID card. If you cannot leave the country without a passport and you cannot get a passport without getting an ID card it will be a short time before everyone has one anyway.
As for the "it will stop terrorism" issue, don't even get me started. The Madrid bombers had valid Spanish ID, the July bombers were all UK citizens. I do not see how having ID cards would have stopped these atrocities.
It will stop identity theft? I don't think so. It will only be a short amount of time before this too will be forged, except now they will be supposedly fool-proof. If your identity is stolen with a forged card then how long will it take you to get it back - if someone has one of these pieces of plastic then they must be who they say they are.
Let's not even mention how little I trust this or any other government with biometric data on me, let alone data on me stored on one of those Oh-So-Reliable government IT projects.
Oh for pity's sake. How stupid do the Government think we are?
The report is full of little quotes from various organisations. Let's start with the one from Home Office minister Andy Burnham. Support, apparently is "Solidifying" and the majority of a whole 31 MPs means that "We think it gives the vote a very clear mandate going forward".
Let's now examine what "mandate" means a clear authorization or direction...the authorization to act given by a constituency to its elected representative (sourced from dictionary.com)
So the fact that a government, who a minority of the UK voted for, have won a vote gives them a mandate - we, the people, apparently support them.
Except, oh wait! We don't! Shock horror.
According to a poll by yougov if the scheme cost £6bn - "a figure that some ministers have talked about" - then public support for it was at "2 to 1 against", and when you move to the figures that the LSE* and others have been talking about, £10bn+ then we are at a figure of "8 to 1 against"
What this tells me is that the esteemed Home Office Minister has a different understanding of mandate. A slim majority of a government a minority elected into office voted for something that at least two thirds of the country are against.
Doesn't sound like a mandate to me.
*not even mentioning that the LSE now refuses to release another figure on the cost owing to the high levels of secrecy from the government about how the project will go ahead. Many officials from LSE have been scathing of planning for this project owing to "contradictions, guesswork and wishful thinking" on the part of the Government.
[Edit] This is quite interesting for looking at the views of the public on ID cards
no subject
Date: Tue, Feb. 14th, 2006 10:37 pm (UTC)See http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=244 for a load of his statements of concern about existing plans.
I don't like the enforced passport business and really hope the lords swat it down again.