LABOUR'S ID SCHEME ON THE ROCKS – a good reason to keep up the pressure!

From emails leaked to the Sunday Times on July 9th, a senior Whitehall official has said the multi-billion pound scheme for compulsory ID cards and the National Identity Register (NIR) could take years to introduce and is likely to end in failure, and officials responsible for ID in the crisis-ridden Home Office are preparing for the project to be 'canned completely'.

We can rejoice that a damning assessment from those closest to the plan should help to undermine Labour’s attempts to win support for ID cards. But let’s not be overly comforted by this news.

The reason we should be wary is even if the best happened and creation of a national register was scrapped completely, other developments in passports (that 80% of us have) are carrying on regardless. The UK ‘Identity and Passport Service’ will still be gathering more invasive biometrics in near future. They are already taking facial dimension info from photos, and passports are being issued right now have chips that contain this information. In any case biometric passports are likely to be made compulsory by the European Union.

A cut-down national identity register, or some alternative database, obtained from passport or driving licence applications, would still give the State a considerable increase in power that will enable them to stop and check our details and track people across borders. For migrant workers, the need to carry a passport would allow for further check-ups and other harassment within 'UK'.

So the date for starting to put passport applicants on the full-blown register may not happen in October 2006 as planned, but it could still result in a identity register-‘lite’. Plus we should not think that a delay is the same as scrapping compulsory ID for everyone. Now the Bill is passed, the scheme can be begun in earnest whenever this or any future government decides it, whatever the opposition politicians might say now. We should not forget that the Tories wanted an ID scheme in the mid-1990’s when they were still in power, and not be taken in by the two-faced promises of their leaders, from a party that will make up almost anything to get elected.

We need to keep up the pressure and refuse identity cards and database developments of any kind. Whatever happens to the scheme, we need to continue to build-up our anti-ID campaigning and make sure the State realises that we won’t let their repressive plans just fizzle out - without them first being made to understand the level of hatred for ID!

Links:
Nottingham Defy-ID:  http://www.nottingham-defy-id.org.uk/
Defy-ID:  http://www.defy-id.org.uk/
No2ID:  http://www.no2id.net/