As the second reading of the mis-named ID cards Bill approaches, the scheme is attracting ever more attention from the media. Amidst claims and counter-claims about exactly how much the database might cost, and precisely which of our personal details the government would sell to help fund it, an editorial in The Telegraph cuts through these incidental details and goes right to the heart of the matter:

It is a basic principle of a free society that the Government should not monitor, snoop, or interfere with individuals unless it is absolutely necessary, not for their own good or for the good of some small group of people, but for the good of society as a whole. No one has yet demonstrated that identity cards are necessary for the survival of British society. If the Government succeeds in its bid to make every Briton carry one, the Government will have stolen one of our fundamental liberties. There will be no compensating benefits.

This entry was posted by andrew on Sunday, June 26th, 2005 at 23:00 and is filed under Anti, General, UK News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.