ID cards

Can someone explain the issue on ID cards to me? Whenever they are mooted, people get very excited about infringement of civil liberties. Mark Littlewood of Liberty states that “They represent a real threat to our civil liberties and our personal privacy”.

In what way? Despite all the rhetoric, no-one has yet satisfactorily explained to me what threat being obliged merely to identify oneself at appropriate times poses to the law–abiding citizens of this country.

John Wadham of Liberty has previously said that “This plan exposes the fact the government doesn’t trust its citizens”.

This seems a silly allegation. Why should the government take on trust that people are who they say they are? Benefit fraud, abuse of the National Health Service and illegal immigration undoubtedly occur, at the expense of the law–abiding, tax–paying citizen. It is naive to suggest that the Government should simply trust its citizens. What about people who are not citizens? In what way is asking someone to substantiate the mere fact of their identity and therefore their entitlement to a pay–out from tax–payers’ money unreasonable?

Wadham goes on to state that he can’t understand why his 89 year old mother should be forced to register, maybe have her fingerprints taken and have other personal details stored on her card when she has committed no crime.

This seems to me to be just a cheap rhetorical technique, evoking images of a kindly old lady hobbling into a police station and having mug–shots taken like a criminal. But all that his mother is being asked to do is to submit to a simple, one–off procedure to sign up for an ID card that will allow her to be identified when she seeks to claim services from the state, so that she can get what she is entitled to, while keeping out those wrong–doers who would seek to benefit from her rights as a citizen of this country, without having undertaken the other side of that bargain which gives rise to those rights — i.e being a citizen, paying National Insurance Contributions, or whatever that may have been. Provided the sign–up procedure is undertaken sensibly and sensitively and the occasions on which one is required to identify oneself are kept to what is strictly necessary, what possible complaint could anyone have with that? Somebody please explain.