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Identity cards branded an 'unacceptable threat to privacy'

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Published Date: 28 June 2009
By Scott Macnab
THE Scottish Government has stepped up calls for the UK identity card scheme to be scrapped.
Recently appointed home secretary Alan Johnson is being urged to cancel the cards as he reviews his new portfolio.

The SNP administration has long opposed the scheme, which will cost an estimated £1.1 billion to introduce over ten years.

In a l
etter to Johnson, Holyrood community safety minister Fergus Ewing said: "Given the current financial climate, I believe the UK Government should have better uses for the vast sums of money being spent on this scheme."

The first identity cards were introduced last November for foreign nationals living in Britain, while residents of Greater Manchester will be the first British citizens able to apply voluntarily for an identity card later this year.

Ewing said they are an "unacceptable threat to citizens' privacy and civil liberties" with little evidence they will reduce crime or terrorism.

"In the midst of a deep recession, with more job losses announced nearly every day, it simply beggars belief that the UK Government is pressing ahead with this costly scheme," Ewing wrote in his letter.

"It is worrying that your department is building arguments on economic benefits that have to assume so much over such a long period of time."

The Government has claimed that the roll out of the National Identity Service will return a net benefit of £6 billion over 30 years.

But, Ewing said, this is built on "lots of assumptions" that may not hold up over such a long period.

He also said a claim that 70 per cent of the planned cost would need to be spent anyway to implement new biometric passports was false.

His letter adds: "I urge you, in light of the uncertainty around net benefits and as part of the review of your portfolio, to cancel this wasteful and unnecessary scheme."





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  • Last Updated: 27 June 2009 9:23 PM
  • Source: Scotland On Sunday
  • Location: Scotland
  • Related Topics: Identity cards
 
1

Charles Linskaill,

Edinburgh 28/06/2009 01:40:08

Yes they Are!, We should be wearing 'tags' instead!

2

Willie Mor,

28/06/2009 01:51:49
Yookay open prison where all citizens are watched and under control.
3

Bret,

Aberdeen 28/06/2009 02:20:28
I.D card policy not thought through sufficiently:

Why couldn't the ID card double up as the driving license and processed at Swansea?
Those who don't drive have an ID card minus the driver details. You could open a bank account with the ID?

UK residents don't have anything but debt anyway, so what is there to hide? Name and and address? Birthplace? Nationality?
Too much paranoia.
4

john z,

edinburgh 28/06/2009 07:50:37
The UK became a police state around a year ago.

Now, you are filmed everywhere. Have you seen the huge banks of CCTV cameras in train stations, like Glasgow central - excessive??

Now the cameras can hear you - so watch what you say.

Your bank details are tracked, you are filmed on trains and buses, you car number plate is tracked, your mobile phone is tracked. All website you visit are logged. All E-mails you send are logged. All telephone calls you make are logged.

Go to the park on a sunny day and you will be filmed - every time I go to Kelvingrove, there are CCTV vans driving round with police vans with blacked out windows (stasi style).

You can (and it is happening daily) be arrested for photographing a police officer.

Oh, yes. The UK is a police state, with more surveillance of its citizens than any other country in the world, including china, Iran and Burma.

But remember, in true Orwellian style - it's for our own safety.
5

drunken proffet,

Tassy 28/06/2009 09:07:08
In the UK it has always been optional. You do not want a health care card, a driving licence, a credit card, insurance details, home address, next of kin well go for it. You may find that if you experience a fatal accident during your life, your mates would have to erect a tombstone on the local tip.
6

Kenny A,

28/06/2009 09:50:35
I do not see ID cards as a problem, however I do not see a great need for them especialy at prices quoted.

Many countries citizens carry them and a few French people I know would not go without them. They can be usefull at times.

All details on just about anybody are already available, passports, driving licences, bank accounts, medical and dental records to name a few.

If I was offered an ID card I wwould have no problem with it, however I would certainly not wish to pay for it, I already carry enough forms of ID. Bit of work to be done on this issue.
7

john z,

edinburgh 28/06/2009 10:11:33
The naivety of the two comments above is staggerring.

The UK ID card would have an almost encyclopaedic level of knowledge about each person. This is quite different to the ID cards in countries such as France, where the ID card carries little extra information than a passport.

Sadly, a lot of young people in this country seem to have been 'duped' into believing that giving the government lots of info about yourself is a really good thing. It isn't. Go and ask those who lived under Franco in Spain until 1977, or those who lived in communist East Germany, until the fall of the Berlin wall.

The ID card proposed in the UK, is very different to anything else in Europe - likely the world.

Part of the new UK police state.

Oh, and be careful what you post, as GCHQ will be logging your IP address, and compiling a list of likely agitators and dissenters. Isn't that what they used to do in communist East Germany, and in the czech republic, and at present in Iran and North Korea.

Going to oppose a new nuclear plant being built sometime in the future??? Going to protest about hospital closure?? going to protest about a fiddled election result?? Your name will be on the list, and your card (ID card) will be marked.

History has shown that this is what WILL happen. Wise up.
8

Andrew,

28/06/2009 10:32:38
99% of UK people already have an identity card of some kind, be it a driving license, passport, ID card for work, bus pass, rail season ticket photocard etc etc etc.
a form of ID being exxential in many cricumstances! SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM! ie Most of us can prove who we are (one exception being the man who a lottery scratchcard but can't "prove" who he is to Camelot)!
Identity cards would be only one very small step further - and would HAVE to be totally accepted/100%
without question. "I am who I say I am and who my card says I am" (Too many "I ams", sounds like pet food)!!
9

Kenny A,

28/06/2009 10:36:44
John Z

The information is already held and easily accessably by the powers that be. I carried an ID card for years.

I am no fan of the state by the way.
10

Pavla,

Irvine 28/06/2009 10:53:53
I really don't see how this will in any way improve security or reduce fraud.Having family from Eastern Europe I know many E.U. citizens travel to the U.K. with their i.d. cards and not passports and many to be quite frank are duplicates from the Albanian gangs who operate over there because they are cheaper than the government replacements and you don't have to answer any questions.Already these documents are passing the scrutiny of U.K. agencies so how will issuing all U.K. citizens in any way improve security.
11

Fletty73,

Stirling 28/06/2009 22:10:33
Labour can shove them where the sun don't shine.
12

drunken proffet,

Tassy 29/06/2009 07:55:28
When I think about it the Tasmanian government offered us Medicare cards that held our medical records. The kind of thing that if you had an accident, the ambulance crew could slot your card into a reader and have information to treat you. I must admit I am just as paranoic as the rest of you, there is no way any stranger is going to find out what I am suffering from and where I live.
13

Kenny A,

29/06/2009 09:49:09
Most comments sensible

12 In UK they ask for all your details on nhs 24 before they lift a finger, time consuming process then all of a sudden they have taotal access. Perhaps a medical card is not a bad idea, never thought of it before.

The danger is when info comes into the public domain and the number of ID a person has to carry.

Anyone got a spare suitcase.
14

oder,

Scotland 29/06/2009 18:21:43
used them for years when I lived abroad! never once had any problem, storm in a tea cup! No they dont prevent terrorism but it does make it harder for terrorists to operate using cash in the legal banking system in the country and there are other benefits as well to numerous to go into here! may other countries have it and in most cases very successfully the British last as usual to get on the bus!

 

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