The rancorous thug (incidentally that Google bomb seems to have worked 
) is under fire over the cost of ID cards. Nothing new here… However, you have to pay for one even if you “opt out” of having a card.
People applying for passports from 2008 will have to pay for an identity card whether they want one or not, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said.
Quelle surprise. Did we expect anything different? The Tories say this will make people resentful. Oh, really? Whatever gave them that idea? Perhaps they should’ve shown a bit more backbone last Wednesday… :dry:
Currently the Beeb is still touting the government’s £93 per passport and registration line, but between those lines is something rather more sinister:
Prices have yet to be set for a combined passport and identity card – although the government says it will cost £93 to make.
Yeah, right… We are talking about government contracts here. £93 my arse. It will be well above that once the overruns and inevitable cock-ups have occurred. It will be the likes of C(r)apita and EDS, lining their pockets fulfilling these contracts, mind… £93 is likely to be a very, very conservative estimate. Whatever the tagged slave customer pays, the cost will be higher than this and we will all foot the bill, thereby contributing to the new Capita boss’ peerage… oops! Did I really say that? Oh, yes, so I did… Cynical? Me? Shome mishtake, shurely. :devil:
Meanwhile the deeply odious home secretary has this to say about those of us less than enamoured with his utopian vision of modern slavery:
“I don’t think there is any benefit in opting out at all. Anyone who opts out in my opinion is foolish.”
As I’ve already opted out by renewing my passport early in anticipation of this bill making the statute book, I guess in his mind that makes me foolish. But then, Charles Clarkes’ is not an opinion that has any relevance. Certainly, the opinion of the playground bully is not one I give value and credence to. Clarke and his noxious opinions are worthy of nothing other than utter contempt and that they get from me in abundance.
I will not allow this rancorous thug to have my personal details. I will not submit to registration on his Stasi database. I will not be tagged like a farm animal and be “background checked” by his army of interfering bureaucrats. I will not be fingerprinted like a common criminal. I will not submit to a licence to live in my own country. I was born a free man; I do not belong to the state and have no intention of allowing that to change. I will not cast my vote for any political candidate that does not actively oppose this insidious infringement on our liberty. I will resist. That resistance starts at next month’s local elections.
Just a few personal thoughts on charging for registration with the (no longer proposed but actual) effectively compulsory National Identity Scheme (NIdS).
It is rather strange that the Government actually wishes to charge on a registration-by-registration basis.
Surely it would be cheaper not to charge that way, but to recover the costs through existing forms of taxation, at very slightly higher rates and with no additional bureaucracy.
Such an approach would also, automatically, provide for payment (at least somewhat) on the basis of ability to pay. For example, this could be viewed as through our existing graduated income tax. This would be without the known considerable difficulty and expense of setting up a scheme of discretionary exceptions.
And for those who believe that, initially, the scheme is not compulsory, surely it is unreasonable to charge people now during any “non-compulsory” period, when it the intention to make it compulsory. Also on this, how can registering be optional if paying for it is not optional.
Note that, for passports, driving licences and television licences, they are truly optional; this is even though they are important things, typically required in modern life. So it is appropriate for there to be a charge for issue. However, the instant any such thing becomes compulsory, the whole case disappears of charging for issue.
Now, of course, if charging for NIdS registration were an additional tax on the people (as some view the speed camera scheme) that would be a totally different issue. But then the Government would have to run the NIdS at a profit!
Best regards