Halt! Papers, Please

17 November 2003


British Government Pushes for National ID Card

The war on terror has pushed the government of Mr. Blair to take some drastic measures, but none has the potential to do long-term damage to British freedoms in quite the way the proposed national ID card plan has. Home Secretary David Blunkett maintains that they will be voluntary until at least 2013. That's not good enough.

Mr. Blunkett said,"I know some people believe there is a sinister motive behind the cards; that they will be part of a Big Brother state. This is wrong - only basic information will be held on the ID card database - such as your name, address, birthday and sex. It will not have details of religion, political beliefs, marital status or your health records." A name under which one may be charged and an address at which one may be arrested is sufficient for any police force. Besides, Her Majesty's Home Secretary misses the point.

It doesn't matter what information is stored electronically on the card or is linked to the card or whether iris scans are used instead of fingerprints. What matters is under what circumstances will a person be required to produce the card. In Britain, it is not necessary to carry a driver's license when operating a car -- merely being able to produce a valid license within a few days after being pulled over for some infraction is adequate. Were the national ID to be treated this way, it would preserve civil liberties, but it would also undermine the security purposes it allegedly addresses.

On the other hand, if the police may stop and demand to see ID on even the shakiest of grounds (racial profiling?), the UK will become Orwell's Air Strip One -- safer perhaps but at what cost?

The ID card must remain voluntary, and there must be very clearly defined, extremely limited, circumstances under which one must produce proof of identity. For example, a police officer must be state why a person is being stopped, what criminal investigation is going on that requires the intrusion, and a statement of legal rights must be made before the card may be requested. The security of a free society depends in part on the word security, but equally on the word free.

Home