The initial reaction to a French version of our beloved ID Cards Bill was met with the usual French Enthusiasm.
“In a press conference held on 26 May 2005 in Paris, 6 organisations have launched a campaign against the French project of mandatory biometric ID card. The French Human Rights League (LDH), the union of magistrates, the union of French barristers, EDRI-member IRIS, DELIS (a coalition of more than 60 French NGOs and trade unions for the defence of privacy and personal data protection) and the French Association of Democrat Lawyers have published a joint position statement and have started a petition demanding the withdrawal of the project of the French Ministry of the Interior to introduce a mandatory biometric ID card.”
Now it seems that M. Sarkozy wishes to spend a little time thinking about the matter. He stated:
“while European rules force us to implement biometric passports rapidly, the e-ID card is a different matter”.
What does this tell us? Well, the French government is possessed of something clearly missing in its UK counterpart; common sense and that the French Interior Minister has a quality lacking in his UK opposite number; a sense of survival.
Vive La France.
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