‘Non-compulsory’ ID cards poised for a makeover?
John Lettice writes in the Register, analysing the future of the ID cards scheme. He concludes:
We’re therefore left with several possible outcomes. ID cards themselves go away under a Tory Government, and there’s a reasonable probability that the database and IPS (which currently still has the mission of transforming itself into the national identity bank/broker) will be brought under control. There will also be at least an intention to defang databases in general, and to take the state’s nose out of everybody’s business. But that’s a toughie – there’s a lot of dodgy databases out there, and quite a lot of Tory councils are mustard-keen on surveillance.
Under Labour (just pretend…), the database will rot if we’re lucky, but the “assumption that the state sits at the centre of our lives” (as Jerry Fishenden puts it) will remain, meaning that the Government will continue to collect data from us and store and distribute it via unfit for purpose systems.
ID cards will plod on at least for a bit, and could even achieve a certain level of popularity and utility if, as we say, the Home Office worked on the pricing, presentation and marketing. But actually they’d turn into a radically different beast from the one originally specified. Some readers may start to appear at borders (automation is the IPS fix for congestion there), but there won’t be readers in the High Streets and elsewhere; checks will be visual, and forgeries will be easier because nobody is ever going to check the chip in the card.
