I.D Cards
A WORRYING READ!
This was written originally by Frances Stonor Saunders.
Frances Stonor Saunders is producer of arts documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC, and the former arts editor of The New Statesman,
author of The Cultural Cold War, Diabolical Englishman and The Devil’s Broker and was awarded the Royal Historical Society’s William Gladstone Memorial Prize.
“You may have heard that legislation creating compulsory ID Cards passed a
crucial stage in the House of Commons. You may feel that ID cards are not
something to worry about, since we already have Photo ID for our Passport
and Driving License and an ID Card will be no different to that. What you
have not been told is the full scope of this proposed ID Card, and what it
will mean to you personally.
The proposed ID Card will be different from any card you now hold. It will
be connected to a database called the NIR, (National Identity Register),
where all of your personal details will be stored. This will include the
unique number that will be issued to you, your fingerprints, a scan of the
back of your eye, and your photograph. Your name, address and date of
birth will also obviously be stored there.
There will be spaces on this database for your religion, residence status,
and many other private and personal facts about you. There is unlimited
space for every other details of your life on the NIR database, which can
be expanded by the Government with or without further Acts of Parliament.
By itself, you might think that this register is harmless, but you would
be wrong to come to this conclusion. This new card will be used to check
your identity against your entry in the register in real time, whenever
you present it to ‘prove who you are’.
Every place that sells alcohol or cigarettes, every post office, every
pharmacy, and every Bank will have an NIR Card Terminal, (very much like
the Chip and Pin Readers that are everywhere now) into which your card can
be ‘swiped’ to check your identity. Each time this happens, a record is
made at the NIR of the time and place that the Card was presented. This
means for example, that there will be a government record of every time
you withdraw more than £99 at your branch of NatWest, who now demand ID
for these transactions. Every time you have to prove that you are over 18,
your card will be swiped, and a record made at the NIR. Restaurants and
off licenses will demand that your card is swiped so that each receipt
shows that they sold alcohol to someone over 18, and that this was proved
by the access to the NIR, indemnifying them from prosecution.
Private businesses are going to be given access to the NIR Database. If
you want to apply for a job, you will have to present your card for a
swipe. If you want to apply for a London Underground Oyster Card, or a
supermarket loyalty card, or a driving license you will have to present
your ID Card for a swipe. The same goes for getting a telephone line or a
mobile phone or an internet account.
Oyster, DVLA, BT and Nectar (for example) all run very detailed databases
of their own. They will be allowed access to the NIR, just as every other
business will be. This means that each of these entities will be able to
store your unique number in their database, and place all your travel,
phone records, driving activities and detailed shopping habits under your
unique NIR number. These databases, which can easily fit on a storage
device the size of your hand, will be sold to third parties either legally
or illegally. It will then be possible for a non-governmental entity to
create a detailed dossier of all your activities. Certainly, the
government will have clandestine access to all of them, meaning that they
will have a complete record of all your movements, from how much and when
you withdraw from your bank account to what medications you are taking,
down to the level of what sort of bread you eat – all accessible via a
single unique number in a Central database.
This is quite a significant leap from a simple ID Card that shows your
name and face.
Most people do not know that this is the true character and scope of the
proposed ID Card. Whenever the details of how it will work are explained
to them, they quickly change from being ambivalent towards it.
The Government is going to COMPEL you to enter your details into the NIR
and to carry this card. If you and your children want to obtain or renew
your passports, you will be forced to have your fingerprints taken and
your eyes scanned for the NIR, and an ID Card will be issued to you
whether you want one or not. If you refuse to be fingerprinted and eye
scanned, you will not be able to get a passport. Your ID Card will, just
like your passport, not be your property. The Home Secretary will have the
right to revoke or suspend your ID at any time, meaning that you will notLondon School of Economics). This scheme exists solely to\n exert total
surveillance and control over the ordinary free British Citizen, and it
will line the pockets of the companies that will create the computer
systems at the expense of your freedom, privacy and money.
If you did not know the full scope of the proposed ID Card Scheme before
and you are as unsettled as I am at what it really means to you, to this
country and its way of life, I urge you to email or photocopy this and
give it to your friends and colleagues and everyone else you think should
know and who cares. The Bill has proceeded to this stage due to the lack
of accurate and complete information on this proposal being made public.
Together & hand in hand, we can inform the entire nation if everyone who
receives this passes it on.”
http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk – find your\n local councillor here: “,1] ); //–>
be able to withdraw money from your Bank Account, for example, or do
anything that requires you to present your government issued ID Card.
The arguments that have been put forwarded in favour of ID Cards can be
easily disproved. ID Cards WILL NOT stop terrorists; every Spaniard has a
compulsory ID Card as did the Madrid Bombers. ID Cards will not ‘eliminate
benefit fraud’, which in comparison, is small compared to the astronomical
cost of this proposal, which will be measured in billions according to the
LSE (London School of Economics). This scheme exists solely to exert total
surveillance and control over the ordinary free British Citizen, and it
will line the pockets of the companies that will create the computer
systems at the expense of your freedom, privacy and money.
If you did not know the full scope of the proposed ID Card Scheme before
and you are as unsettled as I am at what it really means to you, to this
country and its way of life, I urge you to email or photocopy this and
give it to your friends and colleagues and everyone else you think should
know and who cares. The Bill has proceeded to this stage due to the lack
of accurate and complete information on this proposal being made public.
Together & hand in hand, we can inform the entire nation if everyone who
receives this passes it on.”
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk – find your local councillor here:
Marc Reck 
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