Damn, I appear to be suffering from the blogging equivalent of being hit by a car whilst wearing dirty underwear - namely, that those nice folks at The Register have linked to the Blunkett thing, at a time when my blog is mostly ramblings about Flash toys and why I can’t understand Foucault.

Anyway, the reason why they linked is because of the dreaded ID cards, and I thought it best to reiterate my opposition to them. Yesterday, Blunkett unveiled his plans for a compulsory ID card. The most frightening part is, if you don’t want to carry one, then you won’t be allowed to use “specified public services” - presumably meaning the NHS and stuff like that. Which is probably a nifty move on Blunkett’s part, as he can now co-opt doctors, nurses and other hospital staff into his war on privacy, and help make sure we carry our cards like good, faithful citizens.

I’ve written before at muich greater length on just why ID cards are such a bad idea (snappy three word version: costly, useless, invasive), and none of those questions have been satisfactorily answered in the meantime.

Still, the bill is not law yet, and there is still hope we can stop it. If you don’t want the Government spunking away billions on this useless and invasive project, then you might be interested in the no2id campaign, who are fiercely lobbying to protect your privacy, and they have a petition to sign. Oh, and write to (or fax) your MP (even if they’re a Cabinet minister like my one). Use your democratic rights to protect one that might disappear very shortly.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 24th, 2004 at 13:58:12 and is filed under General.