ID Cards Dead?

Courtesy of Justin, this.

Although the fat lady (or possibly more appropriately, the portly former Home Secretary) has yet to sing on the subject, yesterday’s statements from the Home Office make it a racing certainty that ID cards are dead in this parliamentary administration. The portly former Home Secretary meanwhile has been busy singing denunciations of John Reid’s misdeeds in other areas, but will no doubt warble on the sad end of ID cards just as soon as he gets a minute in his busy schedule.

Clearly the email exchange leaked by the Times last Sunday has a part to play. This scheme was always over ambitious. Someone, somewhere had a wheeze – they always do. Identity Cards are a siren call for those seeking solutions for the gamut of society’s problems. Indeed, identity cards constitute a solution that has spent the past half century desperately seeking a problem to solve. On the surface, it all looks so inviting; if we could identify people we can stop identity fraud; we can hamper the movements of terrorists; prevent people claiming benefit to which they are not entitled. But these things are mere illusions, a mirage to entice the unwary and beguiled into the surveillance state. Identity cards don’t actually do anything – not least, they don’t even necessarily identify the holder.

The database behind the cards, however, would do something. Should it be made to work properly, that is. And none of it would be to the benefit of the card holder. There are other ways that we may use to identify ourselves without informing the state every time we do it – and paying handsomely for the privilege. That the database had all the hallmarks of catastrophic farce writ large on it, the more likely scenario is that failures would inconvenience the card holder on a regular basis. The bottom line, though, is that we are only being asked to identify ourselves more frequently because government legislation and bullying demands it. Again, the solution seeking a problem and not finding one, sets about creating one.

So, having clambered onto the bandwagon the New Labour project felt obliged to carry on regardless. To carry on despite the evidence, despite the growing cries of “foul”, blind to reason and common sense, they pushed the project forwards using a combination of spin, dirty tricks, briefing against opponents and outright lies. Despite the opposition, they marched bravely through the “aye” lobby and forced this terrible bill onto the statute book.

Now, it seems, reality is starting to bite. As the Register points out, the Fat lady hasn’t sung. Indeed, she hasn’t even started to dress for the rehearsal. Expect to see shards of the broken project slip into other arenas of government policy. Look closely at anything to do with passports…