Thursday 6 November 2008

People 'can't wait for ID cards' Home Secretary Jacqui Smith


(Taken from the BBC article)

Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.

The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: "I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long."

Do you Jackie? Sorry, Jacqui!

Well I have chatted to a lot of people, I have read a lot of the BBC Have Your Say discussions on this subject for quite sometime, I have scoured the Internet and as far as I can see there is NO SUPPORT or clamoring to have ID Cards as the Home Sec claims.

More to the point, should anecdotal evidence be used as a justification to impose a policy of such magnitude as this?

Supermarket enrolment

In a speech to the Social Market Foundation Ms Smith said cards would be issued on a voluntary basis to young people from 2010 and for everyone else from 2012.

She added: "But I believe there is a demand, now, for cards - and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long.

"I now want to put that to the test and find a way to allow those people who want a card sooner to be able pre-register their interest as early as the first few months of next year." She told the BBC: "We'll see where that interest is, and then we'll see if we can issue some cards to those who've expressed an interest by the end of next year."

("We'll see where that interest is".. mmm... and the opposition areas too!)

People applying for cards and passports from 2012 will have to provide fingerprints, photographs and a signature, which Ms Smith believes will create a market worth about £200m a year.

And in changes to earlier plans the Home Office is talking to retailers and the Post Office about setting up booths to gather biometric data.

Which leads to the question, how far will those in rural communities would have to travel to gain these ID cards if their local amenities such as Post Offices are being closed?

I very much doubt there is much grass route support for the National ID Card, given the well publicised record that this government has on data security, nobody trust you with it Jacqui.

But no doubt there will be a media event stage showing lots of happy, shiny faces, submitting themselves to a voluntary ID Cards as a visible demonstration of the Home Secretary's point.

Any retailer considering being involved by the provision of booths, could also be worried that their outlets may run the risk of being boycotted by those who strongly oppose this type of Orwellian scheme.

This is the crux of the matter, the money.

All of this is nothing to do with keeping us safe, preventing serious crime (because, as we have seen, the really serious crimes are left to the professionals, and police investigations are blocked by the powerful) or preventing terrorism.

Follow the money.

Your ID, well, in particular, your DNA information is extremely valuable to the likes of the pharmaceutical industry, the bio-weapons industry, the security industry, the insurance industry, the list could be endless.

And, they are going to charge us for the privilege.

Still, everybody is pestering the life out of poor Jacqui because she cannot get the ball rolling quick enough.

Really?


BBC NEWS | Politics | People 'can't wait for ID cards'

But, before I get carried away with my own stance on this subject, it is best to leave the final commentary on Jacqie's assertions that we will flock to have ourselves branded as the property of the New World Order to two of the most influential voices.

The first is one of the most popular political blogs, with in 100,000 hit per month, Guido Fawkes Blog. which is also followed by, and cringed over by most of our Parliamentary Representatives, with a "what happened next" scoop.....


....and you, my dear viewers.

Woops! slipped into a Dame Edna Moment there!!!


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