UK Compulsory National Identity Cards
The Case Against UK ID Cards
Live and let live and remember this line:
Your business is your business and my business is mine
- Cole Porter
31/3/2006
I no longer have the time to campaign actively, however I want to comment on the events of
the last week.
The ID Card Bill is now law following a last minute so-called "compromise".
People applying for or renewing a passport or other designated document will be able to
opy out of receiving an ID Card until 2010.
However even people who opt out will still have to pay for the card they don't get.
Worse, even though people will be able to opt out of the largely symbolic piece of plastic
they will still be forced to be entered on the identity database. This is compulsory
registration for the majority of the British people.
The database has always been the threat. The database was what the government always
wanted. The database is what they now have.
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The Labour Government
wants to introduce compulsory National Identity Cards for innocent British citizens. I
am one of many who considers UK National ID cards - and the databases
behind them - a serious threat to civil liberties
and privacy.
On these pages I'll outline the background and set out the arguments
against the Home Office identity card plans.
I am proud of Britain's history as a supporter of individual freedom.
ID Cards threaten that great British tradition and I will argue against them at every opportunity.
I do this as a British citizen who cares about his country.
The terrorists want to destroy our way of life. If our response to terrorism is to panic
and give away the civil liberties we hold dear then the terrorists will have won.
Supporters of ID cards often begin by asking "What's wrong with them them?" or "What are
you afraid of?". In doing so they are attempting to shift the burden of proof.
We do not currently have compulsory ID Cards and have not needed them for fifty years.
The arguments in favour of ID Cards keep changing as one after another is discredited.
This scheme is not safe, it is not sane and it is not consensual.
It is not up to me to defend the status quo - it is up to those who wish to fundamentally
change our society by imposing ID Cards on us to prove their case.
This they have failed to do.
On 28/6/2005 Home Secretary Charles Clarke opened the debate on the Second Reading of the
Bill. You can read the full text of this along with my comments on the briefings page.
Latest UK Identity Card News
Keep up with the latest ID Card news at the NO2ID News Blog.
2004 Opinion Poll
An opinion poll for Privacy International in 2004 showed people already turning against the Government's
plans. You can read the pdf report here:
A Nation Divided
or read my web version here:
A Nation Divided (HTML)
Students: You're welcome to use information from these articles on national
ID Cards in your papers. However for your own sake I strongly recommend you rewrite it. If
you just copy things directly there is a big chance you'll be caught. According
to my logs I get a lot of traffic from "ac.uk" addresses searching for UK ID Cards,
National Identity Cards, etc.
Feel free to quote from this document. If you want to help spread
the word about the threat to UK civil liberties from national ID Cards, please
link.
Use the links in the grey panel on the right to navigate the information on
UK Identity Cards.
There's a link at the bottom of each page back to this introduction
if you want to bookmark or link here.
If you agree with me that compulsory UK Identity Cards are an unacceptable
threat to privacy and civil liberties
then make sure you read the final section: UK ID Cards:
what can I do?.
The arguments for ID Cards don't stand up to scrutiny; the arguments against are
overwhelming.
If we all work together then we can defeat this government and
prevent UK Identity Cards from being introduced.
Trevor Mendham - Home Page
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