Angela Epstein, the UK’s first ID card holder
Angela Epstein writes in The Jewish Chronicle:
I had found myself first in line after having been a vocal supporter of ID cards in my weekly opinion column for the Manchester Evening News. It’s not an easy line to take (and may explain why only 1,386 of Manchester’s 2.5 million-strong population have applied for a card). I have been castigated for advocating a scheme regarded by many as an infringement of English civil liberties — even though it is voluntary. Others sneered that the cards are unworkable and that I was wasting my money since the Tories plan to drop them if they win the general election.
Most significantly, some ventured that as a Jew I must be all too familiar with the sinister wartime echoes of having to prove identity. Why didn’t my skin prickle at the very thought of carrying an ID card?
December 3rd, 2009 at 21:04
Ms Epstein seems to be labouring under the delusion that her ID card will enable her to “prove her identity” whenever she produces it. She also thinks (by implication) that it would be less trouble to replace than a passport. And she doesn’t seem to have any inkling that her prized card might actually help a criminal steal her identity, making it extremely difficult for her to reclaim it.
I hope for her sake that the UK never has a government that dislikes Jews. (Yes, I do realize that could never ever happen).
December 3rd, 2009 at 22:16
She also fails to understand the meaning of the word ‘voluntary’.
I’d draw a pertinent parallel but for fear of invoking Godwin.
Oh, sorry – that’s right, she already did.
December 4th, 2009 at 18:39
Glib, flippant and inaccurate:
“Anyway, the personal information the card surrenders is minimal: it holds my picture, name, date of birth, finger prints and signature. I probably give away more every time I swipe my supermarket loyalty card.”
December 6th, 2009 at 21:23
don’t worry my dear it will eventually prickle.