While I was away, the ID Cards Bill received its second reading the house. No real surprises, although Trevor Mendham comments over at the UK ID Cards Blog about the MPs who rebelled. Even that, though contains no real surprise as battle lines were drawn up some time ago. The disappointment is that Michael Howard has lined himself up behind the government thereby displaying a complete lack of backbone. Fortunately, some of his MPs have more metal about them.
Once again we were treated to a Home Secretary lecturing us like naughty children repeating the same tired clichés. Mr Clarke attacked those of us who oppose the bill accusing us of:
"woolly liberal thinking".
Stating that ID cards won’t infringe civil liberties. This is the classic "Big Lie" technique. If you keep repeating the same untruth with sufficient conviction, people will find themselves starting to believe it. The traditional attack on anyone who purports to defend civil liberties is to accuse them of woolly liberal thinking – so, zero out of ten for originality, Mr Clarke. I am not a "woolly liberal", and I am perfectly capable of seeing through the lies and misinformation put about by the Home Office and I am sufficiently concerned about the very real threat to civil liberties this authoritarian regime poses to actively resist. A point here; not once has the Home Office answered any of the civil liberties concerns raised by opponents – just the same stuck recording stating that there are no civil liberties issues. More big lies come in the form of this little gem:
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear".
Jesus H Christ! Are these people for real? How many times do we have to spell it out – every single one of us has something to hide – and we all have plenty to fear from a government that has proved itself so consistently inept at managing computer databases. The Passport fiasco, anyone? And when it comes to managing information effectively, does anyone recall a little incident recently regarding a 45 minute capability? This was government information and it was all true, wasn’t it? Do you really trust these incompetents with your personal information? Answers on a postage stamp, please…
Clarke goes on to tell us that this will help combat terrorism, and benefit fraud. Again LIES, LIES and more LIES. Terrorists have nothing to fear from ID cards – they will carry on as normal. Identity is not the issue with terrorism, nor is it with organised crime – detection and evidence is. Also, until such evidence is available, intent is not solved with ID cards – unless there is an entry on the database that says "suspected terrorist". Benefit cheats do not hide their identity, merely their circumstances. Clarke also raises that populist spectre; immigration. Britain is a nation of immigrants – we’ve been doing it since, well, since the Romans invaded in the first century. We have nothing to fear from immigration and much to gain. It does need to be properly managed and ID cards won’t stop illegal immigration. What they will do is provide an opportunity for a black market in forged ID cards that will be sold to illegal immigrants so that they can slip into the country and disperse even more easily than they do currently.
Back on point for a moment, and I’ll let my blood pressure come down a little…
19 Labour MPs voted against. Hopefully more will follow suit when they realise that this could become an election issue. We just need to make more people aware of what they are likely to lose by it. Given that the Tories also either abstained or rebelled in significant numbers, this is likely to get a rough ride through the commons. Then there’s the Lords. Finally, if it gets all the way through to implementation, around 3% of the population (according to the UGOV poll) are prepared to actively resist. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.
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