The ID card scrap

BrianSJ

Tony Collins, as ever, has the full SP. Looks like the worst of all worlds.
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/2009/04/heading-for-the-200-passport-t-1.html

Thrasymachus

I look forward to seeing the measure scrapped and can't wait to hear the news that is has been: for two reasons.

First, a yearning wish to finally (finally !) see the onward onslaught of the surveillance society receive some sort of bloody nose for a change.

And second, a rather distrubingly camp desire to scamper around my living room with a bottle of champers singing "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead."

Nicholas

If they pursue this it will be their poll-tax. They understimate the level of opposition.

Hopefully if it is to be scrapped Jacqui Smith can join her cards on the scrap heap.

Kevyn Bodman

I wouldn't care if the ID cards and database came at zero cost; it's wrong and should be opposed and scrapped because it's wrong,not just scrapped to save money.

Steve.W

Peter Hoskin says -

“On ID cards, my gut feeling is that Brown will stick with them.” - He also uses the word 'totemic' and quotes the phrase , “sacred cows."

Nulabour is so desperate it is thinking of inviting David Blunkett back so getting rid if the ID card idea cannot be possible as Blunkett has made a career out of them.

But Nulabour does have a problem with NO2ID, a fast growing cross party group that are extremely effective. Gordon gets it wrong, again.

jon dee

If Brown dumps ID cards, he may arrange it to be done by Jacqui Smith's successor.

It would be accompanied by a breathtaking burst of spin, to guarantee it a new narrative aimed at the front pages.

Saving money and putting the country first, would be secondary.

Hereford

Smith was on the radio last night backpeddalling like mad on the project to collect data on all our calls and emails. But of course it was all because SHE had thought about it and concluded it was an invasion of privacy. And as she said, she is very concerned that surveillance doesn't cross over into an invasion of privacy.

Surprised that the climb down hasn't been more widely reported.

Johnathan Pearce

ID cards should be scrapped out of principle of respecting liberty and privacy, not just because they are costing a lot of money.

A lot of firms have made a nice fat living out of government IT projects; the Tories need to slash what might be called the consultantocracy: all those thousands of consultants and nominally private sector people who in fact derive the bulk of their income from the state, ie, the taxpayer.

AndyLeeds

About bleedin time. Never mind the cash issue. It should never have even been contemplated.

C Powell

Agree wholeheartedly with Johnathan and Kevyn B (nice to see fellow Samizdatas on here BTW). We also need to scrap the Contact Database - I'm still seething at being told by my school that they have to give my childrens' details to the government regardless of my wishes - and the NHS Spine and the proposal to data share across government departments and e-borders and all the rest of Labour's vile authoritarian rubbish. Any form of monitoring or interception (& this applies to RIPA etc) should only be done on the say-so of a judge with good cause having to be shown first. Time for the state to be told that we are its masters and not the other way around.

Liz Brown

over on Politics Home they are quoting Blunkett as saying that biometric passports can do the same job as ID cards - can we expect a volte face shortly?

David Lindsay

There was always something about identity cards that was somehow just never going to happen in this country. And now we can't afford them, anyway. So that's that.

Nor can we afford that giant database. So we are not going to have it. Jolly good.

But nor can we afford Trident.

And nor can we afford the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

john miller

Everywhere you look, Labour are tying in the Tories to massive expenditure progammes that they will not be able to cancel when they attain power.

Labour in opposition will be able to use this in many ways, ranging from the copycat jibes on policy, to the hypocrisy of Cameron's pre-election stance to cut expenditure.

By signing the contracts now, Labour are squeezing the Tory options, forcing them to concentrate on the least popular cuts.

Time for a no confidence motion. Lets hope the Downing Street petition hits the million mark.

Fergus Pickering

I take it, David Lindsay, that you are saying we should scrap all these things. So we should. AND the NHS computer. AND the Quangocracy. AND... I think I'd better go and have a lie down.

Nicholas

C Powell: "Any form of monitoring or interception (& this applies to RIPA etc) should only be done on the say-so of a judge with good cause having to be shown first."

Hear, hear. Too many "fishing expeditions" masquerading as "investigation" possible under the current procedures. Something akin also to the way New Labour has allowed its multitude of quangocratic "enforcement" bodies to share files with "intelligence" about unsubstantiated allegations, the subjects thereof having no redress to the testing of them at law. The "end" is Labour's narrow vision of what our society should become, the "means" is anything they, their quangocratic friends and the police can get away with.

David Parker

Unfortunately, the Tories have formerly been ambivalent over the issue of ID cards, but now, sensing the way the wind is blowing, weathercock Cameron is more firmly opposed to them.

But even if Brown does abandon identity cards, this does not necessarily mean that they will not still be imposed upon us during the life of the next Parliament (at even greater expense) by the EU.

Similarly, the proposed abandonment of the massive national database of our communications is really only a clever scam to pass on the costs to the ISPs, whilst still, of course, being able to force the ISPs to divulge this information to the Government.

Verity, ex-Samizdata

Jonathan Pearce - "consultantocracy" I hope it catches on. And quangocracy, as someone else mentioned above. Two monsters fed by the vicious Trot/Marxist/Gramsci academy graduates destroying a formerly free country.

Steve.W

David Parker -

Your point that ID cards might be imposed upon us by the EU is a good one. The Tories may stand up to this and continue to refuse them. The weak ones are the LibDems. There are, at the moment, opposed to ID cards but are also fanatically pro-EU. I've written, months ago, to the LibDem HQ for clarification on this point but no reply. I don't trust them.

Barry

Blunkett has said passports should be mandatory with some kind of card for us to carry.(Like there being photo and paper driving licences I guess) His plan still requires the National Information Register or some data sharing between departments. His plan still would see us encouraged/cajoled into carrying photo ID at all times.

Jacky Spliff's stepping back from the brink on communications data is an illusion. All she's done is hide behind an EU directive and propose the ISPs collect and store the data rather than the State, but give the State access to it on demand.

Surveillance has become all too easy under this Government thanks to RIPA. Our communications data will no doubt be accessible under it so no need for a warrant. It is a shocking and gross abuse really.

Minnie Ovens

"that they haven't been in power for the past 12 years, and their policy ideas are naturally more up in the air."

Silly me, why didn't I realise that was their reason.