By DAVID DISHNEAU
Identity cards will not create the "Big Brother state", but will instead bring it under control, Charles Clarke claimed yesterday. The Home Secretary urged delegates to support his ID card legislation on the grounds that it would make it easier for people to protect themselves against identity theft. RELATED:
Why You Should Resist the National ID Card
Ministers originally proposed ID cards primarily as a means of combating terrorism and benefit fraud.
But yesterday, in a change of tack, Mr Clarke defended the scheme mainly on the grounds that it would benefit individuals as consumers and citizens. "ID cards are controversial, of course, but we all need to understand that we already live in a society where there are enormous databanks of information about all of us, whether held by financial institutions, employers, passports and driving licences, health and education authorities or criminal justice agencies," Mr Clarke said.
"Moreover, we all face many occasions where we need to prove our identity, whether it is to open a bank account, take out a mortgage, claim a benefit, pass through a border control, get a criminal records bureau clearance or many other basic transactions."
Mr Clarke, who is thought to be more sceptical about ID cards than David Blunkett, his predecessor, or Tony Blair, said the Government's proposals would make these transactions "easier for the individual".
He went on: "It will not remove civil liberties, but will give an individual greater control over his identity. It will not create the Big Brother state. It will help to control it."
In his speech Mr Clarke also accused the Tories of "mobilising prejudice and bigotry" during the election campaign through their comments on immigration.
He said he was committed to creating a "fair system of immigration and asylum" over the next four years so that no party would be able to exploit the issue in the same way at the next election
Why You Should Resist the National ID Card
This piece focuses on the introduction of the British national ID card but the same principles can be applied in any country.
1) A government engaging in escalating criminal actions and becoming more and more secretive should not be watching and tracking us as if we're all criminals. The same goes for CCTV surveillance. That's not freedom. Would you let a convicted murderer and pedophile watch your child 24/7?
The often peddled mantra of 'why should you care if you have nothing to hide?' is manifestly ridiculous in light of the fact that we have a government that has everything to hide and yet we're the ones under suspicion.
Should it concern us that our government shredded hundreds of thousands of documents before a 1st January Freedom of Information deadline? Why should the government care about freedom of information if they have nothing to hide?
But they did care enough to order this mass shredding.
We are told by the government to make our lives completely transparent or go to jail while the government itself becomes more secretive than ever before.
Why should they know everything about me when they won't tell me anything about them?
Would you walk up to a gang of criminals and give them your credit card and PIN number?
2) The government told us that the ID card would make our information more secure. Blair said this would protect, not infringe our liberties. And how did they propose paying for it? By selling the information of 44 million British citizens to private companies. How secure is that?
3) As a perspective on how governing powers use ID cards, consider the fact that residents of Fallujah in Iraq were finger scanned, given retina scans and ID cards just to be able to leave and enter the village. Every citizen is treated as a potential insurgent and is given an ID card. Is that how our government views us all, as potential insurgents?
So, what do you have to hide? is the wrong question. The question should be, why does the government need to know everything about me?
4) ID cards will not stop terrorism. Even the Home Secretary Charles Clarke admitted it after the London bombings. In addition, the Blair government has been caught faking terror alerts to push through increased power. Firstly in the case of the Ricin plot that never was and also an attack on Canary Wharf which was admitted to be totally scripted. Furthermore, the so-called London bombing mastermind was an MI6 asset. Reams of evidence point to the bombings being an inside job, one of the purposes of which was making British people accept ID cards. Large scale terrorist atrocities worldwide always lead back to government perpetrators. In this instance it is important to recall Herman Goering's quote,
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
5) Top criminologists have gone public to say that ID cards will actually result in an increase in identity theft, not a decrease as the government claims.
6) The introduction of the national ID card is one step further towards the mandatory implantation of ID chips in all British citizens. Does this sound outlandish? Implantable chip technology has been in existence for a decade and discussions on ID chipping humans is in the news regularly. Tommy Thompson, the former Health and Human Services Secretary in the Bush administration, had a chip implanted and is now touring the country lauding the virtues of ID chips. During the the confirmation hearings for John Roberts Jr., George W. Bush's nominee for Supreme Court chief justice, Roberts was questioned by Senator Joseph R. Biden on whether he would rule against a mandatory implantable microchip to track American citizens.
7) The purpose of government is to serve the people, not control them. Any scheme of national registration is alien to the basic fundamental principles of a supposed free country.
Don't think for a minute that our goverment does not want us to have national ID cards .They've floated the idea a few times and the minute its a done deal in Britain and the US you'll have to pay for yours too :x
Identity cards will not create the "Big Brother state", but will instead bring it under control, Charles Clarke claimed yesterday. The Home Secretary urged delegates to support his ID card legislation on the grounds that it would make it easier for people to protect themselves against identity theft. RELATED:
Why You Should Resist the National ID Card
Ministers originally proposed ID cards primarily as a means of combating terrorism and benefit fraud.
But yesterday, in a change of tack, Mr Clarke defended the scheme mainly on the grounds that it would benefit individuals as consumers and citizens. "ID cards are controversial, of course, but we all need to understand that we already live in a society where there are enormous databanks of information about all of us, whether held by financial institutions, employers, passports and driving licences, health and education authorities or criminal justice agencies," Mr Clarke said.
"Moreover, we all face many occasions where we need to prove our identity, whether it is to open a bank account, take out a mortgage, claim a benefit, pass through a border control, get a criminal records bureau clearance or many other basic transactions."
Mr Clarke, who is thought to be more sceptical about ID cards than David Blunkett, his predecessor, or Tony Blair, said the Government's proposals would make these transactions "easier for the individual".
He went on: "It will not remove civil liberties, but will give an individual greater control over his identity. It will not create the Big Brother state. It will help to control it."
In his speech Mr Clarke also accused the Tories of "mobilising prejudice and bigotry" during the election campaign through their comments on immigration.
He said he was committed to creating a "fair system of immigration and asylum" over the next four years so that no party would be able to exploit the issue in the same way at the next election
Why You Should Resist the National ID Card
This piece focuses on the introduction of the British national ID card but the same principles can be applied in any country.
1) A government engaging in escalating criminal actions and becoming more and more secretive should not be watching and tracking us as if we're all criminals. The same goes for CCTV surveillance. That's not freedom. Would you let a convicted murderer and pedophile watch your child 24/7?
The often peddled mantra of 'why should you care if you have nothing to hide?' is manifestly ridiculous in light of the fact that we have a government that has everything to hide and yet we're the ones under suspicion.
Should it concern us that our government shredded hundreds of thousands of documents before a 1st January Freedom of Information deadline? Why should the government care about freedom of information if they have nothing to hide?
But they did care enough to order this mass shredding.
We are told by the government to make our lives completely transparent or go to jail while the government itself becomes more secretive than ever before.
Why should they know everything about me when they won't tell me anything about them?
Would you walk up to a gang of criminals and give them your credit card and PIN number?
2) The government told us that the ID card would make our information more secure. Blair said this would protect, not infringe our liberties. And how did they propose paying for it? By selling the information of 44 million British citizens to private companies. How secure is that?
3) As a perspective on how governing powers use ID cards, consider the fact that residents of Fallujah in Iraq were finger scanned, given retina scans and ID cards just to be able to leave and enter the village. Every citizen is treated as a potential insurgent and is given an ID card. Is that how our government views us all, as potential insurgents?
So, what do you have to hide? is the wrong question. The question should be, why does the government need to know everything about me?
4) ID cards will not stop terrorism. Even the Home Secretary Charles Clarke admitted it after the London bombings. In addition, the Blair government has been caught faking terror alerts to push through increased power. Firstly in the case of the Ricin plot that never was and also an attack on Canary Wharf which was admitted to be totally scripted. Furthermore, the so-called London bombing mastermind was an MI6 asset. Reams of evidence point to the bombings being an inside job, one of the purposes of which was making British people accept ID cards. Large scale terrorist atrocities worldwide always lead back to government perpetrators. In this instance it is important to recall Herman Goering's quote,
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
5) Top criminologists have gone public to say that ID cards will actually result in an increase in identity theft, not a decrease as the government claims.
6) The introduction of the national ID card is one step further towards the mandatory implantation of ID chips in all British citizens. Does this sound outlandish? Implantable chip technology has been in existence for a decade and discussions on ID chipping humans is in the news regularly. Tommy Thompson, the former Health and Human Services Secretary in the Bush administration, had a chip implanted and is now touring the country lauding the virtues of ID chips. During the the confirmation hearings for John Roberts Jr., George W. Bush's nominee for Supreme Court chief justice, Roberts was questioned by Senator Joseph R. Biden on whether he would rule against a mandatory implantable microchip to track American citizens.
7) The purpose of government is to serve the people, not control them. Any scheme of national registration is alien to the basic fundamental principles of a supposed free country.
Don't think for a minute that our goverment does not want us to have national ID cards .They've floated the idea a few times and the minute its a done deal in Britain and the US you'll have to pay for yours too :x