The media no longer seems so interested in ID cards and the National Identity Register, as it is widely accepted that a majority of the public now oppose them. But many may be surprised to hear that, despite public opposition and the current economic climate, Labour still wishes to proceed with the scheme.
Within the last two weeks, a number of statutory instruments relating to ID cards have been passed (or perhaps 'rubber stamped' by order of the executive) through Parliament, much to the regret of the Lords.
The ID cards scheme has been slowly but surely expanding, more recently relying upon a lack of media coverage and the misconception that it has been scrapped. On 25th November last year, the first compulsory ID cards were issued to foreign nationals. Since then, the Home Office has been trying to set up further compulsory 'trials'; though whilst the scheme has been growing, it has suffered a number of setbacks, such as protests from airport workers and their unions opposing trials at Manchester and London City airports, and the Government's problems in finding contractors to produce the technology.
These setbacks have forced the Government to rethink its strategy and push back its plans to later dates. This month the Home Office announced the ID cards scheme would no longer be compulsory. It has also decided to delay ordering the necessary equipment for producing the cards until after the next general election, although this is perhaps because the government isn't able to find many companies willing to take on a scheme that may very well be scrapped within a year.
But even if we win the battle against ID cards, we most certainly won't have won the war on privacy. The Identity and Passport Service plans to go ahead with biometric passports for 2010 and the Conservatives do not oppose the proposition. The IPS continues to conduct random 'interrogations' on innocent citizens applying for passports. The Government has announced its Policing Crime and Private Security Bill through which it intends to expand the National DNA database. It has done the barest minimum possible to comply with the S & Marper ruling against the retention of innocents' DNA on the database, introducing plans to store the DNA of innocent people for between 6 and 12 years. The argument goes that this is because innocent people might yet commit a crime; but of course this is an argument for storing the DNA of every single person in the country - which, we must suppose, is their ultimate goal.
ID cards, the NDNAD, IPS interrogations, biometric passports, the expansion of ANPR: a huge variety of Government departments wish to store more and more information on us. So, why isn't the media warning us about these issues? Too often, the media tell us very little. For example, following coverage of the Intercept Modernisation Programme, you'd be forgiven for thinking that plans for a database containing records of our phone calls, internet browsing activities and emails are to be scrapped, without knowing that this information is still to be collected and to remain available to various organisations without our permission. Labour continues to push on with the database state whilst so many stand by and watch it happen.
But the Conservatives are hardly any better: they still support many aspects of the database state. Whilst the ID cards scheme, including the National Identity Register, may very well be scrapped under an incoming Tory government, we must continue to oppose the database state, to make it clear to all political parties and politicians that the British people will not stand for such an unnecessarily intrusive attempt to steal and abuse our personal information. I recommend taking the NO2ID pledge for a start.
