We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
|
Compulsory ID Cards “By 2008” The Independent reports that ID Cards could be compulsory within less than five years. This is much sooner than the ten year cooling off period originally agreed by Cabinet. Blunkett’s scheme apparently has Tony Blair’s personal support.
A draft Bill will be introduced next month with legislation proper in the November 2005 session (assuming Labour are still in power). The “fast track” Bill will allow compulsion to be introduced without further legislation being necessary, probably by 2008.
The Independent also reports an unnamed Minister repeating Blair’s line that “The argument has moved on from concern about civil liberties”.
It hasn’t.
The civil liberties issues with ID cards are just as strong today as they were fifty years ago. If the Government doesn’t want to talk about them then we must do so, loudly and publicly. We need to make this an election issue.
If we give up our civil liberties then the terrorists will have won.
Cross-posted from The Chestnut Tree Cafe
|
Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
|
I agree with you whole-heartedly, especially with the last sentiment. The terrorist hate our way life here in the West and therefore by giving up the very liberties that they despise we would be giving in. Basically it would be admitting that the liberal democratic way of doing things doesn’t work properly and showing that our government is every bit as willing as theirs to take away our civil liberties for the sake of stability.
Your web page says that UK ID cards should be an election issue. I agree. But saying that won’t make it happen. Please update your web pages to show how ignorant or otherwise the political parties are on the issue and how this can be changed. This would include ways to contact them, the right people to contact, whether it is best to email or use snail-mail etc.
I have emailed the Conservatives and they are also in favour of ID cards. So it looks like it cannot be made into an election issue. Here is the response I got from Michael Howard’s office:
—
In particular, we accept that the
practical problems presented by ID cards are immense. Nonetheless, we
believe that if a scheme can overcome these problems without sacrificing our
civil liberties, ID cards should be introduced soon, not in ten years’ time.
—
Regards,
Andrew Marlow