The Home Office have conformed they expect the cost of the ID card proposals over the next ten years to be £5.4 billion. This is one-third to one-half of independent projections of the cost (Full LSE report pdf here). Of course the government aren’t trying to bury the story on a bad news day.
Having somehow managed to avoid watching a single episode of the widely praised West Wing TV series I was delighted to discover the entire Box set in my Christmas stocking – and with enough spare time over the holidays to give it a good lash. But with 10 episodes of the first series under my [...] read our review »
This is article was first published in Fortnight magazine back in February 2003. Chris Farrington is now a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. Although the circumstances it describes has changed radically and [...] read our review »
You know if they plugged the perennial leaky tap that feeds over here for just one year, that’d be just 0.4 billion they’d have to find.
Bloody hell! How am I supposed to find £5.4 billion to prove that I am meself (as if a cheap mirror is not already enough to satisfy me as to that on a daily basis)?
Only one thing for it then – I shall have to cultivate a friendship with Peter Mandelson.
Nothing will convince me that this has anything to do with security. Our terrorists tend to be home grown but I suppose it will help identify the corpses of suicide bombers and their victims after the event.
Also anything that man produces man can fake.
This is the advance of big brother mentality, give us all a number at birth and monitor for life. We will need the identity to bank, to get benefits, go to school and before we know it to enter the council gym, library or swimming pool. In the digital world of tomorrow some moronic pen pusher envisages all sorts of data being collected and collated against us all. What books we read, what films we watch and where we surf the web. Of course it would help if that which is initially proposed actually worked.
Terrible waste of money.
This really has got to be one of the most wasteful ideas any government has come up with. Governments are amongst the last organizations to be trusted with information, especially in the manner the ID Bill suggests.
The Dutch government did a low tech version of something similar in the 1930s, once the German Nazis took control in Holland in 1940, they used this list to round up Holland’s Jews and a number of other groups.
As to the Terrorism justification it is rubbish and that the government uses it tells you what shaky ground they are on. Approx 86 percent of former PIRA volunteers would have been eligible for a UK ID card, as to would the London bus/tube Bombers. In any case cloning these cards will be no problem at all. If any thing they will give people a false sense of security.
I just hope common sense prevails when Blair goes.
How do they envisage compelling the Irish of the North to use an id card which features prominently a union jack? And what of the provision of the GFA which recognises the entitlement of northerners to an Irish identity as well as a British one (or none). It’s cost them more than £5.4 billion to clean up that particular mess.
Has the point about Nationalists in the North been addressed?
Either Nationalists and anyone who isn’t a UK citizen is obliged to carry a card stating this or the whole scheme has one huge flaw.
OC / Setanta
FYI the present legislation
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2006/ukpga_20060015_en.pdf
Actually, the Irish government has hinted that should an ID card system be launched in the UK, that the ROI would most likely have to follow shortly. So presumeably the nationalists of the North could use that card by agreement with the UK government.
ID cards are purely for social security fraud. Nothing else.
“So presumeably the nationalists of the North could use that card by agreement with the UK government”
Since when did we need their permission?
I believe I have heard the bit about the Irish government introducing a similar scheme though.
“”So presumeably the nationalists of the North could use that card by agreement with the UK government”
Since when did we need their permission? ”
Pacman, did you not see the words “by agreement”?
If people born in NI don’t wish to apply for and get a UK ID card, then they, just like all other foreigners, cannot expect to have any of the benefits possession of such a card may bring. Unless an appropriate arrangement is made with their Government
… but I suppose it will help identify the corpses of suicide bombers
Indestructible ID cards, Crataegus. ‘Tis no wonder the cost is rocketing.
p.s. Just an afterthought on “suicide bombers: Would the men at the Somme be described as suicide walkers? The Confederates of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, suicide runners and perhaps those cavalrymen at Balaclava and Little Big Horn, suicide equestrians.
I think we should all be chipped with Tesco cards – not only would be able to prove our identity to whomever demanded, but we could also pick up our shopping. And why not add a chip for Translink and our bank or building society?
It was my understanding that foreigners would be first to be assigned ID cards, they are not merely linked to nationality, but to residence. So a foreigner in the UK will still be required to carry the card, regardless.
“If people born in NI don’t wish to apply for and get a UK ID card, then they, just like all other foreigners, cannot expect to have any of the benefits possession of such a card may bring.” What benefits might these be? Unless we are talking about scrapping National Insurance Cards and medical cards, etc, I can see no benefit for the individual user whatsoever.
The cost is irrelevant. The whole scheme is the biggest infringement into our liberties every proposed. The proposed scheme is not like any other in Europe, as the ID card (a fairly harmless bit of plastic) is backed up with a mammoth database, that will be used to record our every move. The only other country to attempt such a system is China.
Nothing will be gained by this. It’s just another example of Big Brother Labour.
The ID card itself is far from harmless. Those in Europe are harmless. But the one the HO is proposing contains an RFID chip, similar to the ones that now come with passports, readable from 10 metres away. Even the HO has stopped using the line “ID cards will stop terrorists”.
By the way, £93 for the card, £93 to update it, eg. you get married, divorced, move house, etc, else a £1000-2500 fine. Oh, and to pay for the cost, your details will be sold to marketeers for £750 per record.
All it is, is Big Brother NuLab, wanting control.
“He who controls your information controls you. I control your information.” – Dogbert