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]
|
More creepy Big Blunkettry, this time from Scotland (on Sunday):
EVERY secondary school pupil in Scotland is to be issued with an ID card bearing his or her name, age and address, under a controversial government scheme branded last night as an assault on privacy.
The ‘entitlement cards’ will be issued to 400,000 12 to 18-year-olds from March next year and will be used for a range of services including school meals and leisure centres.
Nice trick. Get a card, or go hungry.
But the scheme – which has already been piloted in Aberdeen – was condemned yesterday as a cynical ploy to introduce national identity cards for adults by the back door.
The bit of this Scotland on Sunday story that did most to threaten my digestion was this:
An Executive spokesman told Scotland on Sunday that the scheme, officially called ‘Dialogue Youth’, would see 400,000 cards given to all Scotland’s 12-18 year olds. The spokesman said they would not be compulsory.
Dialogue Youth. Puke. And they won’t be compulsory. It’s just that if you don’t carry one, you won’t be able to do anything or buy anything.
Worrying words from Blair’s conference speech:
“And in a world of mass migration, with cheaper air travel, and all the problems of fraud, it makes sense to ask whether now in the early 21st century identity cards are no longer an affront to civil liberties but may be the way of protecting them.”
I don’t mind him asking the question, I just wish he’d listen to the answer.
The Guardian reports that the cabinet has secretly given the go-ahead to the chancellor, Gordon Brown, to set up Britain’s first national population computer database that is the foundation stone for a compulsory identity card scheme.
The “citizen information register” is to bring together all the existing information held by the government on the 58 million people resident in Britain.
It will include their name, address, date of birth, sex, and a unique personal number to form a “more accurate and transparent” database than existing national insurance, tax, medical, passport, voter and driving licence records.
The plans for a citizen information register have not been announced and the only official reference was a brief mention to a feasibility study in the government’s consultation paper on identity cards published last July. The scheme is a joint project between the Office of National Statistics and the Treasury and is designed to ensure that “public sector organisations have the right records about the right people at the right time.”
ZDNet UK reports the Taiwan government has completed the distribution of 22 million Java-based ID cards to its citizens, in one of Asia’s largest deployments of such cards. The country’s Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) adopted US-based Sun Microsystems’ Java card technology primarily to prevent identity theft, according to a statement from the computing firm.
Each card contains a microprocessor with 32 kilobytes of memory that allows data such as allergy information, emergency contact numbers, medication, and personal insurance to be stored. Daniel Yu, Sun Microsystems Greater China vice president of global sales operations said:
Java card technology allows card issuers to modify the services and applications on the card as the user’s needs change, without incurring additional costs to replace the card.
The distribution of the 22 million health cards started in July last year to replace its original paper-based system was expected to finish by May this year. The cards cost around $2 (£1.21) each.
In an even larger scheme in Thailand, the government plans to issue a Java-based national ID card to all 61 million citizens, according to a report in the Bangkok Post. The card will contain biometric identification, as well as insurance, tax and welfare benefit information. The scheme is expected to be launched later this year.
Speaking on BBC1 Question Time yesterday, Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt made public her “grave reservations” over Big Blunkett’s plans to introduce compulsory National Identity Cards for innocent UK citizens.
By going public on the eve of the Labour Party conference Hewitt is taking a large political risk. She needs our support.
Cross-posted from The Chestnut Tree Cafe
In today’s Telegraph a reader comments:
Sir – The scheme for national identity cards that David Blunkett proposes (report, Sept 22) goes beyond the bounds of what is tolerable. The ordinary people of Britain are neither criminals nor potential terrorists, and will not be frightened into accepting this clampdown on our civil liberties. I, for one, will follow the lead of Nelson Mandela and the oppressed people of South Africa and burn my “pass”. I hope millions of Britons who cherish their freedom will do the same.
The Guardian’s Simon Jeffery explains some of the issues about identity cards.
In an attempt to marshal my thoughts and arguments on the subject I’ve added some pages to my web site:
UK Compulsory National Identity Cards – The Case Against
Hopefully this’ll be of some use to those opposing Big Blunkett. There’s a load more that could be added (for example I haven’t even mentioned the problems with biometrics) but at least it’s a start.
Following his Radio 5 Live spot about ID cards last night (see the post below for links and email info), another email from Sean Gabb arrived, to the effect that the programme went well:
… All I had to do this evening was state the main heads of opposition to compulsory identity cards, and then sit back and listen to the callers as they made their own points.
All but one of the callers was against the idea. I spoke to one of the production people, who told me about a flood of e-mails and text messages that ran 20-1 against. …
Sean says he was particularly grateful to the lady who …
… gave me the point about perfect copies of ID cards on sale in Lagos weeks before the real ones had begun dropping through letter boxes.
He continued:
Quite plainly, the speakers for the scheme were drunk on technology that they didn’t understand. None of them could answer the often fierce questioning from the callers about how retina eye scans could be made secure against forgery.
I said less than I normally do. I didn’t get properly on to the civil liberties aspects. But it was the callers who made all those points, and with impressive fluency and conviction.
I was unable to hear this programme myself, but it sounds like it went well, doesn’t it? Sean is working on a system to have all such broadcasts up at the Libertarian Alliance website.
Good show.
Email from Sean Gabb:
I have just been contacted by BBC Radio 5, to go on air tonight (Sunday 21st September, 10-11 pm BST) on “Late Night Live”, to discuss the principle of compulsory identity cards. I am not sure yet if the discussion will go ahead, or with me taking part. However, people often complain that I do not give enough notice, so I am sending this out as soon as I can.
You can find Radio 5 at 693 and 909 Khz on the AM band. Otherwise, it is available as streaming audio from this this website.
If you want to contribute with moral support – and this is one reason I am sending this message out! –you can telephone the studio on: 0500 909 693
You can text messages to: 85058 (search me what these digits mean)
Or you can e-mail questions and comments via this web page.
Needless to say, I do welcome support. I shall probably be faced with dozens of the usual sheeple, insisting that they have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. You may not be able to get on air, but if you can send supportive e-mails, the weight of these will be measured.
I will make a recording of the debate, and in due course make this available as a sound file from my web site and that of the Libertarian Alliance.
By the way, the Tony Martin broadcast will go up, I hope, in the next five days.
Many regards,
Sean Gabb
Director of Communications
The Libertarian Alliance
Sunday 21st September 2003
sean@libertarian.co.uk
Despite recent cabinet setbacks, Big Blunkett is determined to introduce compulsory National Identity Cards for innocent British citizens.
The BBC Reports that he intends the legislation to be announced in the next Queen’s speech.
When pressed about whether they would be compulsory he said: “my own view is that the minimum is you can’t actually work, or draw on services unless you have the card”
That sounds compulsory to me.
Cross-posted from The Chestnut Tree Cafe
The Publican reports that the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) is calling on the trade to show support for the national ID card scheme, despite reports that the Cabinet has rejected the plan.
Home secretary David Blunkett is looking to introduce the scheme, which would see the introduction of a compulsory ID card for everyone in the UK aged over 16. This will effectively give the pub industry the single proof-of-age card that many licensees and pub operators have been calling for.
Reports this week suggest that Mr Blunkett’s project has failed to gain full Cabinet support and that the plans have been referred back to a government sub-committee, a sign that there are serious doubts. However, Caroline Nodder, spokesperson for the BII, said most of its members fully back the scheme.
Given the number of local proof-of-age schemes it is hard for licensees to spot fake IDs. So we strongly support plans for a single, national ID card. We need to keep pushing this because from the trade’s perspective it is a very good idea.
Ms Nodder also said the very fact that ministers were sitting down and discussing a concrete plan represented a huge degree of progress.
Up until 18 months ago, ministers made it clear they wouldn’t even talk about an ID card scheme. We hope good sense will prevail. The introduction of ID cards will be a significant way forward for the government because it will help crack down on under-age drinking and has made it clear that is a key priority.
Yes, it’s true, there are people who live on an entirely different planet…
|
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.
|
