UK ID cards! :(
Folks - here in the UK we are due to receive compulsary ID cards. Not really a problem to someone who had to carry one in the military.
However, this piece started me thinking - and not in a good way!! Paranoid, well, maybe - but the potential for horrific abuse seems to be present. Orwell may have been right!
What do you think?............
You may have heard that legislation creating compulsory ID Cards passed a
crucial stage in the House of Commons. You may feel that ID cards are not
something to worry about, since we already have Photo ID for our Passport
and Driving License and an ID Card will be no different to that. What you
have not been told is the full scope of this proposed ID Card, and what it
will mean to you personally.
The proposed ID Card will be different from any card you now hold. It will
be connected to a database called the NIR, (National Identity Register).,
where all of your personal details will be stored. This will include the
unique number that will be issued to you, your fingerprints, a scan of the
back of your eye, and your photograph. Your name, address and date of birth
will also obviously be stored there.
There will be spaces on this database for your religion, residence status,
and many other private and personal facts about you. There is unlimited
space for every other details of your life on the NIR database, which can be
expanded by the Government with or without further Acts of Parliament.
By itself, you might think that this register is harmless, but you would be
wrong to come to this conclusion. This new card will be used to check your
identity against your entry in the register in real time, whenever you
present it to 'prove who you are'.
Every place that sells alcohol or cigarettes, every post office, every
pharmacy, and every Bank will have an NIR Card Terminal, (very much like
the Chip and Pin Readers that are everywhere now) into which your card can
be 'swiped' to check your identity. Each time this happens, a record is
made at the NIR of the time and place that the Card was presented. This
means for example, that there will be a government record of every time you
withdraw more than £99 at your branch of Nat West, who now demand ID for
these transactions. Every time you have to prove that you are over 18, your
card will be swiped, and a record made at the NIR. Restaurants and off
licenses will demand that your card is swiped so that each receipt shows
that they sold alcohol to someone over 18, and that this was proved by the
access to the NIR, indemnifying them from prosecution.
Private businesses are going to be given access to the NIR Database. If you
want to apply for a job, you will have to present your card for a swipe.
If you want to apply for a London Underground Oyster Card,or a supermarket
loyalty card, or a driving license you will have to present your ID Card for
a swipe. The same goes for getting a telephone line or a mobile phone or an
internet account.
Oyster, DVLA, BT and Nectar (for example) all run very detailed databases of
their own. They will be allowed access to the NIR,just as every other
business will be. This means that each of these entities will be able to
store your unique number in their database, and place all your travel, phone
records, driving activities and detailed shopping habits under your unique
NIR number. These databases, which can easily fit on a storage device the
size of your hand, will be sold to third parties either legally or
illegally. It will then be possible for a non governmental entity to create
a detailed dossier of all your activities. Certainly, the government will
have clandestine access to all of them, meaning that they will have a
complete record of all your movements, from how much and when you withdraw
from your bank account to what medications you are taking, down to the level
of what sort of bread you eat - all accessible via a single unique number in
a central database.
This is quite a significant leap from a simple ID Card that shows your name
and face.
Most people do not know that this is the true character and scope of the
proposed ID Card. Whenever the details of how it will work are explained to
them, they quickly change from being ambivalent towards it.
The Government is going to COMPEL you to enter your details into the NIR and
to carry this card. If you and your children want to obtain or renew your
passports, you will be forced to have your fingerprints taken and your eyes
scanned for the NIR, and an ID Card will be issued to you whether you want
one or not. If you refuse to be fingerprinted and eye scanned, you will not
be able to get a passport. Your ID Card will, just like your passport, not
be your property. The Home Secretary will have the right to revoke or
suspend your ID at any time, meaning that you will not be able to withdraw
money from your Bank Account, for example, or do anything that requires you
to present your government issued ID Card.
The arguments that have been put forwarded in favour of ID Cards can be
easily disproved. ID Cards WILL NOT stop terrorists; every Spaniard has a
compulsory ID Card as did the Madrid Bombers. ID Cards will not 'eliminate
benefit fraud', which in comparison, is small compared to the astronomical
cost of this proposal, which will be measured in billions according to the
LSE (London School of Economics). This scheme exists solely to exert total
surveillance and control over the ordinary free British Citizen,and it will
line the pockets of the companies that will create the computer systems at
the expense of your freedom, privacy and money.
If you did not know the full scope of the proposed ID Card Scheme before and
you are as unsettled as I am at what it really means to you, to this country
and its way of life, I urge you to email or photocopy this and give it to
your friends and colleagues and everyone else you think should know and who
cares. The Bill has proceeded to this stage due to the lack of accurate and
complete information on this proposal being made public. Together & Hand to
hand, we can inform the entire nation if everyone who receives this passes
it on.
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