The cards would not be made compulsory for at least seven years and only then after a parliamentary vote. But if, as David Blunkett hopes, people are eventually obliged to have an ID card, those failing to produce one could be escorted to a police station to have “biometric” data such as fingerprints and iris scans checked against a national database.
Show me your papers Monday, April 26, 2004
Have Your Saycomments & trackbacks
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26 Apr 2004 at 02:15 pm | #
Maggie T. took away the right of silence from Britons and this is the next step. If you like in Canada you are autonomous under the Constitution to a degree that Britions simply no longer are.
27 Apr 2004 at 01:01 am | #
I would consent to one of those ID Cards in a heartbeat if it meant making travelling a bit simpler. If you have nothing to hide...what difference? They know all about you anyway.
27 Apr 2004 at 09:08 am | #
You have nothing to hide except the stuff you do not know about. You will have no problem being arrested by mistake, then, being confused for that person who falls within the range of error associated with the card’s biometrics? Perhaps you have travel habits parallel to a suspicious person or unbeknownst to you a friend is up to no good. Maybe you have a unrevealed genetic disposition to a disorder that will cut your kids off from insurance or forms of work and that disposition will somehow become statistically probable once your biometric data is churned. Look at governments you are subject to - these are the people that will have that data.
You are right that it is inevitable but it will not be same old same old.
27 Apr 2004 at 11:05 am | #
Hmmm...interesting. So it’s not just a criminal record they are looking for. That’s the story they are selling…
27 Apr 2004 at 01:06 pm | #
Once you biometrics get into the world of identification they will flow arond for any purposes. Think SIN card except you face is the bar code.