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Samizdata quote of the day

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These things are only more difficult because the govt has deliberately made them so. Pushing my head underwater, then giving me the option of buying an overpriced snorkel isn’t doing me any favours.

– Paul, a commentator on The Register, merely the funniest of many pertinent comments on this story: ‘Boil a frog’ ID card rollout to continue until 2012. Regular readers may gather I have been a little busy today.

March 6th, 2008 |

6 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Tman
    March 6, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    Oh goody! Another ID for thieves to steal or make counterfeit copies of! It’ll go a little like this folks.

    British MP’s: “But what about the biometric data? Won’t that make this foolproof?”

    ID Thief: “Hey stupid, you’re storing all that data about the persons biometrics in a database, right? A database similar to the several different databases that have recently been breached or lost or worse, right?”

    British MP’s: “But look at it, so shiny!”

    I would suggest the following article by Bruce Schneier “Biometrics: Truths and Fictions” be stapled to the forehead of each MP until it has been properly consumed.

  • Paul
    March 6, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    When I read that article, I find it hard to believe this is actually happening to you guys. The incredible amount of bureaucracy, inefficient government planning, and Big Brother-style privacy invasions (“first we’ll target selected groups of workers and teenagers…”) just boggles the mind and, frankly, terrifies me.

  • guy herbert
    March 7, 2008 at 6:01 am

    Paul,

    It isn’t just over here. What do you think REAL-ID is?

    If it is successfully imposed on Britain, just how long do you think the states’ resistanceto federal surveillance of citizens will last?

    Britain, our great free and democratic ally, has identity cards. Identity cards are not a threat to freedom and democracy. Those who misguidedly or arrogantly oppose a national identity assurance system, citing an individual ‘right’ to set aside community safety, are providing effective assistance to the enemies of freedom and democracy.

  • Rob Fisher
    March 7, 2008 at 3:35 pm

    I have been a little busy today

    Oh yes, it was good to see you on BBC News 24 yesterday afternoon, making all the usual points. That Woman From Liberty was on, too. The BBC seems almost vaguely neutral about ID cards.

  • Tman
    March 7, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    Guy is absolutely correct Paul, we have nothing to brag about over here in regards to REAL ID and Homeland Insecurity. Were it not for our federalist ways we would already have REAL ID and the database containing all the info would have been breached already.

    Fingers crossed that the dissention holds out.

  • Julian Taylor
    March 9, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    Addendum to that comment (as posted by ‘Paul’) is :

    “… whilst keeping your thumb poised over the airhole”

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