the Disillusioned kid: Mistaken Identity
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Mistaken Identity

Legislation to establish an ID card system throughout the UK passed its second reading in the House of Commons last night. There are a whole load of reasons why this is a bad thing and consequently the idea has attracted opposition from across the political spectrum. Unfortunately I don't have the time to examine all or even most of these reasons here. Instead I'll point you in the direction of NO2ID, a recently established coalition campaigning around the issue, whose supporters range from Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party to the Bournemouth West branch of UKIP via the Libertarian Alliance. Check out their website for information on ID cards and information on the campaign.

One of the recurring mantras among supporters of the scheme has been the threat from terrorism, which we are to take it ID cards will go some way towards reducing. Both NO2ID and Justice Not Vengeance offer useful analysis of this argument concluding that it doesn't really stand up. Privacy International produced a report in April of this year, examining this issue. This presented one of the first serious attempts to research the relationship between terrorism and ID cards and drew a similar conclusions. The report examined data from the US State Department and the Israel-based International Policy Institute for Counter-terrorism revealing the 25 countries which have suffered most heavily from terrorism since 1986 (using, of course, the official definition of terrorism which excludes the examples perpetrated by western powers such as the bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan). On the basis of this information, they noted,
Eighty per cent of these countries have long-standing identity card systems, a third of which contain a biometric such as a fingerprint. While it is impossible to claim that terrorist incidents have been thwarted as a result of an ID card, the above data establishes that the cards are unable to eliminate terrorist incidents.
For more concrete evidence, consider Spain which requires all those over 14 to carry ID cards, a rule which did nothing to stop the bombings in Madrid.

NO2ID National Coordinator, Phil Booth suggests on their front page that the backlash against ID cards "could far exceed the impact of Stop the War and the Countryside Alliance and could turn into Labour?s Poll tax." I hope he's right, but the muted response thus far leaves me far from sure. One thing does seem certain though. Once we've got ID cards it's going to be very, very hard, if not impossible to go back. If we want to stop them and everything they entail we need to do so ASAP.

NO2ID - Stop ID cards and the database state

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.