More than a card - a new way of life
The ID Card scheme is not just a harmless new bit of plastic in your
wallet.
It requires a massive and intrusive database that changes the nature of UK
Citizen****p and ****fts the balance of power further away from the citizen
to
the State. With the National Identity Register (NIR) and ID Card, the
Government will control your identity. It will decide who you are. Showing
ID to officials will become an everyday part of British life.
Although other Europeans are used to ID Cards the NIR is much more
controlling than their ID Card systems and they have legal safeguards we
do
not. It will open your life to inspection by thousands of bureaucrats.
Spiraling costs
Even the Government admits the minimum cost is E5.8 billion - that's six
domes! That estimate has doubled since 2004. And it only counts Home
Office
costs and not the penalties for errors, or the cost of policing many new
offences. The Government is reducing the Civil Service but is building a
whole new Identity Service. Taxpayers and businesses will have to pay yet
more for special scanners in doctors' surgeries, benefit offices, banks
and
even hotels.
The biggest ever White Elephant
Big Government computer systems are a catalogue of disaster. Yet this is
the
biggest and most complicated government computer scheme anywhere, ever.
Even if it works perfectly, the ID scheme cannot meet the problems it is
supposed to solve. The Government admits that the NIR will not stop
terrorism. Almost all benefit fraud is lying about cir***stances, not who
you are. A single master do***ent makes identity theft easier, and more
worthwhile, not harder. Criminals don't play by the bureaucratic rules. ID
Cards won't cut crime.
A tool for bullies
With a wink to racists, the Government says ID will stop illegal
immigration. But it doesn't in the rest of Europe. Asians and black people
often feel they are unfairly stopped and searched by police already. ID
will
give more reasons to "check" people. What's more, demands to prove you are
British will creep into more and more public and private services, with
the
system as an excuse. How does a divided society make you safer?
And when it goes wrong? -- You, the suspect
You are about to be fingerprinted, eye-scanned and tagged like a criminal.
Any errors will be your responsibility. The Home Office will have the
final
say. Even now about 100 people a month (out of a few thousand checked) are
wrongly marked as criminals by the Criminal Records Bureau. The NIR could
mean several checks a day for everybody. What happens to your life when
the
scanner fails or there's a mistake?
Say NO to ID
The ID scheme is expensive and socially destructive. Either it will help
make Britain a police-state, or it will be a bigger white elephant than
the
poll tax. Help us stop it.
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