It looks like we've already lost Tomkat
As others have said, the government doesn't have my fingerprint (I've been a good boy), and they certainly don't have a retina scan.
Why am I worried?
This breaks down into two distinct points. Misdirection and misuse. Let's tackle misdirection first.
What started this whole ID cards idea off anyway? If you ask a minister, they'll say it was a response to 9/11. Bollocks. Blair wanted these for ages, and 9/11 was the perfect excuse. Flash forward to the 7th July, and amid the tragedy the government
still manages to snidely push the agenda, dropping not-so-subtle hints that all this would have been impossible with ID cards. At this point we have to stop and think for a second.
Let me give you two scenarios.
The first is the 7th July. British citizens are radicalised, go to pakistan or afghanistan for further training, and return. They hatch a plan to bomb the london transport network. They appropriate supplies and equipment from covert sources and execute the plan. The only place in which ID cards would even have an impact on this scenario is if the trip to Afghanistan was flagged (integrated with passports, remember?) - but wait! Our government has promised not to do this to us! So once again assuming you trust the government and take their word, ID cards are useless in this situation.
The second is fictional. A terrorist cell smuggles itself into the country using illegal immigration routes. They already have a plan, and are merely entering the country to execute it. They meet with a contact, a radicalised British citizen, who provides them with the money required to purchase their equipment and transportation. Illegal immigrant transporters do not require ID cards. Black market goods do not require ID cards. Buying a second hand car from the local paper does not require an ID card. Driving to the target and detonating the carbomb does not require an ID card. ID cards are, once again, useless.
Ok so we've now debunked the terrorism angle.
What's left? Ah yes, the issue that gets the BNP types riled up. Immigration. Well I think we've just about covered that in with the terrorism bit. You don't need an ID card to be smuggled into the country in the back of a lorry from Eastern Europe. You don't need an ID card to live with 10 other immigrants in a 2 bed semi above a chipshop working for a chinese gangmaster. I think you get the idea. 1 - 0 to the immigrants. Of course, for people coming in by legal channels then ID cards will work perfectly, but that won't change anything. The government likes to sell this image of ID cards errecting an electronic fence around the country. I'm sorry Mr Blair, but it simply doesn't work like that.
That's the sorry truth, and that's the misdirection the government is trying to pass off. So what's the real reason the government wants ID cards? For that, you just have to look into the mirror. Welcome to misuse.
ID cards are the perfect tracking tool. We already know they will be inseperable from passports. National security, tax, benefits, criminal record, DVLA, etc etc etc. All this will be tied together, centralised, and accessible to ministers. Is this REALLY something you can trust them with? There are also plans to tie them into your medical records. Once again this is being sold as a "service" - just go online, use your ID card and view your complete medical history! The security implications of this alone don't bear thinking about.
Government spin aside, there are actually two reasons these cards are on the agenda. The first one has been covered. The second is so obvious that if you haven't thought about it before, you'll kick yourself. Money.
The database will operate on a two-tier system. The second tier limited access section will allow government vetted companies and organisations access to a subset of your personal information. For a hefty fee of course. Each and every one of us is now a government asset. It's almost beautiful in a perverted way. Sell the system based on fear of terrorism, make it compulsary, make money from the information people have been forced to provide, give yourself a huge new tracking system into the bargain, and don't in any way address the problem that the system was sold to address.
Oh and yes, and get it for free. That's right, your shiney new ID card comes with an equally shiney pricetag. Thinktanks currently believe the government's estimate of around £100 is an underestimate by at least 100%. Nice.
So we have vague promises that the system will be used to combat terrorism, but when you realise that it can't possibly work, and that "a terrorist" can just as easily be a British citizen, that gives the government carte blanche to monitor whoever they please. And that's the bit we know about. God only knows what MI5 will be up to with it.
The next logical step (and high ranking members of the police force have been dropping hints that they want this for ages) is compulsary DNA samples being added to it. Every man, woman and child, and newborns added at birth.
I for one am not taking Blairs word that this won't happen, and he hasn't even given it yet. As the original Independant article points out, he's already eliminated trial by jury and the principal that punishment should not be applied before conviction of a crime in certain situations. He's removed public trials and hearings for terroist suspects. He's extended the length of time such suspects can be held without trial. And remember, ministers decide if you're a terrorist, not a judge. In the eyes of Labour, they ARE the law, and they've got away with it. Say the "T" word, and the principal of innocent until proven guilty goes right out of the window, and I don't trust the government to apply their shiney new powers.
It's extraordinary.
The party tramples all over the constitution, the founding principals of justice, and the seperation of politics and judicial process, and the majority of the population says "Oh ok then." I can only assume it'll take a very significant abuse of these powers - they have, after all, been abused already - for people to sit up and pay attention. Maybe once we start our very own US style "rendition" programme and a few innocent people get flown to military bases and tortured, the penny will drop. I hope it doesn't go that far, but I can't say it looks promising at the moment.
The idea behind a representative democracy is that government is there as the elected representative of the people, to best serve and protect their interests. Now look at what we've really got, and ask yourself: where did we go so wrong?