We need identity cards, and soon
The new Home Secretary writes on the Guardian Comment is Free web site:
The introduction of identity cards is a simple means of helping you, and I, protect our unique identity from fraudsters. Identity fraud costs the UK economy £1.2bn on average each year and causes misery for tens of thousands who fall victim. At a cost of just £30, the identity card is a cheap way of helping fight back. So, despite the headlines that would have readers think otherwise, I’m not scrapping identity cards – I’m committed to delivering them more quickly to the people who will benefit most.
I know that some of you have real concerns about the government’s motives for introducing the card. When I announced this week that I would make identity cards wholly voluntary it was because I believe that there are real benefits that will make the card an attractive proposition for many people. I think the case for identity cards has been made, but understand that getting a card will be a big decision for some people. Easy or hard, I think it should be a voluntary decision, one that people choose to take, because they agree and welcome the benefits an identity card will provide.
July 2nd, 2009 at 21:44
Breathtaking mendacity. If ID cards were “wholly voluntary” then you would be able to hand one back if you didn’t want it. Instead, anyone accepting an ID card would be forced to renew it every 10 years for the rest of their lives, on pain of repeated £1000 fines. An ID card holder who moves house without informing the authorities would also attract repeated fines of up to £1000.
Words cannot express my contempt for politicians who lie to the public in this way.
July 3rd, 2009 at 08:35
If the Home Secretary is capable of writing “helping you, and I…” then he is capable of anything.
Two solecisms in four words is pretty fair going, even for a party that energetically rejects British history and culture.
But what does that sort of rank carelessness (and, I dare say, arrogance) say about Mr Johnson’s ability to understand complex briefs and oversee public projects of enormous size and cost?
July 3rd, 2009 at 13:07
Hmm, 60 million people at £30 per person = £1.8bn. Alledged cost of fraud = £1.2bn. So the government is swindling us out of £600million. Where’s the real fraud.
OK, you won’t get £1.8bn every year but then the cards will only counteract a small proportion of the £1.2bn a year loss.
July 3rd, 2009 at 17:14
The £1.2bn fraud figure is an invention of the government. A close examination of the figure shows that that the government pulled it out of the air. The real cost of ID fraud to the country is less than a tenth of this, and probably under £100m a year.
The Home Secretary (or his minions) are illiterate, but are also innumerate. None of the numbers they produce have ever made any sense, A full blown ID card system with teeth (which is what they secretly want) would require a huge infrastructure with specially designed terminals to read the biometrics on the card. The cost of this for every government department (and many private sector organizations) has always been conveniently ignored – but it is safe to say it would be £15 bn or more over a period of ten years or so. Without this infrastructure the card is no more secure than one I can run up in a well equipped workshop for a few pounds.
Apart from not understanding the cost implications of the 1970s computer architecture proposed for the NIR Alan Johnson does not seem to understand the enormous objections most of us have to a government database of our personal data and movements. Whatever the Home Office says, we all know that the information will not be secure (because civil servants can always be corrupted); the data on the NIR will be sold (just as personal data on the DVLA files are sold); and the public will take strong exception to paying for a card needed to transact their lawful business. Don’t forget that the Home Secretary can legally cancel your card without reason, and the so-called independent commissioner who will oversee the scheme reports to the Home Secretary!
The next job for NO2ID is to get guarantees from the opposition parties that they will not only abolish ID cards but the NIR as well. If we ever get round to having a written constitution it should include provisions that ensure the government can never build a citizen database of the sort the Home Office have been itching to create for years.
July 15th, 2009 at 23:04
Doesn’t the £1.2b get recycled into the economy? eg on Guinness, who DO pay tax…. mebbe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/02/tax-gap-diageo-johnnie-walker