One of the great consistencies of the ID cards debate has been the manner in which the government has shifted the reasoning for their introduction each time that one of their fallacies has been exposed. Initially, Big Blunkett ranted about terrorism, then it was illegal immigrants, then it shifted to benefit fraud and identity theft – the biggest proposed thief being the home office.
In the wake of the bombings in London, the terror threat was quickly dismissed as a reason by the then home secretary, Charles Clarke as he admitted that nothing in the proposed legislation would have prevented the attacks. It doesn’t stop them raising it every so often, though – even in passing. The big lie technique is effective despite there being no substance to the lie; eventually it seeps into public consciousness and people are so used to hearing it that they subconsciously accept it as truth.
So, now, via the NO2ID newsblog, this; from the Sunday Telegraph:
Identity cards are to be presented as a crucial weapon in the fight against illegal immigrants in a significant change of tack by ministers.
Until now, senior figures led by Tony Blair have insisted that the main reason for pressing ahead with the controversial programme is that ID cards will help win the war on terrorism.
So, having come another complete circle, we are back to the illegal immigrant argument. This, from people who admit that they don’t know how many illegals are in the country. How, therefore, will issuing identity cards solve that problem? Illegals survive in the black economy. The people who employ them don’t ask questions, don’t pay NI contributions or pensions and sure as hell don’t comply with the government’s requirements for employment. Do ministers seriously believe that these people will ask for ID cards before sending their workforce out cockle collecting or fruit picking? The clue, for mentally challenged ministers who seem to have difficulty grasping even the most basic concepts, is in the word “illegal”.
In the other part of a twin-pronged attack, on Tuesday the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, will reaffirm his support for ID cards and insist on new safeguards to ensure personal information is not abused by the organisations that hold it, including the police.
Really? And why should we believe this? Given the recent pronouncements about data sharing between government departments, there appears to be a contradiction here. Only a fool would believe that this will not lead to abuse at some point. People operate computers and people will sooner or later abuse the system. Chris Lightfoot expands on this point:
This is interesting because Brown’s previous intervention on this subject was to recommend removing some of the scheme’s limited safeguards—he wanted the information on the National Identity Register to be shared with shops and other businesses, supposedly to FIGHT CRIME but actually as some sort of sordid attempt to claw back some of the cost of the scheme by flogging the data off to the private sector.
Quite. Once more, government ministers speak with forked tongues. Is there anything they could possibly say that I can ever hope to believe? It’s just as well I’m not holding my breath.
New Labour = New Totalitarianism.