A Tangled Web

I.C.I.D.



A few months ago, I debated ID cards on the radio and came out in total opposition to them. Nice to see that Peter Hitchens, he of the varying political sensibility but a good guy overall, agrees in last week's Spectator.



In essence, our objection to the Blair Government's plan to introduce these ID cards reduces to the following elements;



1. They will have absolutely no substantial impact on the war against Jihadists. As Peter notes, 15 of the 9/11 terrorists travelled on legal visas. I suspect that Blair is using the excuse of the ongoing war to cloak his own agenda, as ever. Tellingly, Spanish citizens carry ID cards - it didn't make a button of difference to 11/3.



2. They have no obvious benefit in the war against crime. There is no evidence that those countries that have already introduced ID cards have seen crime levels fall. What is to stop a burglar on his way to a crime carying an ID card? A stupid fatuous argument, most spectacularly employed by the right-on Sir John Stephens.



But the biggest reason to oppose these cards is that quite simply it is a removal of fundamental liberty and a major encroachment by the State into our private affairs. No UK Government should be able to stick its nose into our affairs. It has the potential to bring the day of a Government-controlled Police State closer and must be rigourously opposed by all thinking people.