House of Lords Caves on UK ID Cards

The House of Lords allowed the Blair government to move Britain a bit closer down the road to 1984 yesterday. Having 5 times refused to sanction the Blairite demand for ID cards for everyone over the age of 16, the peers finally compromised with the devil. If Their Lordships see no need to stop this, perhaps the wrong guys bought titles, and the case for outright abolition, rather than reform, becomes much more plausible.

The “compromise” that Their Lordships came to with the House of Commons allows for an opt-out of ID cards until 2010 instead of the original start date of 2008. Anyone applying for or renewing a passport between now and 2010 will still have all their particulars entered into the national database, but they won’t have to get the ID card. This puts the effective date after the next election. According to the Tories, this makes the idea “just acceptable” because they will scrap the idea if they win. At least, there is one reason to vote Tory already on the cards.

Here’s how the BBC explained the process, “You will have to go to your local passport office where you will be photographed and fingerprinted. The new Identity and Passport Service will then carry out a ‘background check’ on you to establish that you are who you say you are [what if they make a mistake?]. Your details will then be entered in a national database and you will be issued with a passport and an ID card.” Also, the Beeb says, “The card will contain basic identification information including a photograph of the card holder, along with their name, address, gender and date of birth. A microchip would also hold biometric information - a person's fingerprints or iris or facial scans, which are unique to the individual . . . A national database will be created holding the personal information of all those issued with a card.” Anyone feeling nervous yet about the potential for abuse?

The audacity of the Labour government goes even further. Not only does it compel the citizens (or perhaps the word “subject” really is a worthwhile distinction) to submit to a “background check” and allow all of their data to be handed to government officials, but also it requires them to pay for the privilege. The ID card alone will cost £30, combined with a passport £93 and independent experts have put the cost at three times that.

The Home Secretary Charles Clarke says that he intends to require everyone in the UK to have such an ID card, although not necessarily to carry it. He has said, the ID card will “enable every citizen in this country, over time, to protect their identity from people who seek to defraud.” Sorry, but compiling all of that information into a central database makes it easier, not harder, to defraud. And really, what is the point of having an ID card if one doesn’t have to carry it, or more to the point, how long will carrying it be optional?

Mostly for good, Mr. Blair has moved the Labour Party to the right in his tenure. On this issue, though, New Labour sits beside Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, and not necessariliy to the BUF's left.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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