U-turn on National Identity Register welcomed but battle not won

This photo is of my sister-in-law and partners' granddaughter playing Hide-and-Seek in Standish woods this weekend - and what a glorious weekend. Possibly a tenuous link to this topic - but often one of the arguments for ID cards is if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear....

What nonsense - we will be hearing next that spy cameras should be in every room in our homes linked back to the nearest police station - after all alot of crime goes on behind closed doors like child abuse, drug dealing and more. And while we are about it lets have all our mail openned and checked...

The need for privacy has nothing to do with implying we have something to hide or fear - to invade privacy someone should have a really good reason like you were strongly suspected of committing a criminal act. Only out-of-control dictatorial regimes monitor and control citizens all the time just in case a tiny minority get up to mischief. Infact it is more likely innocents who have more to fear as it is terrorists and criminals who are able to find ways around these cards.

Anyhow news that the Government is taking a U-turn on the National Identity Register (NIR) is most welcomed. This would have been the system that recorded everyone’s biometric details in one place - the plan is now to host the information across three existing IT systems. Read the BBC report here: ‘Rethink on ID card computer plan‘.

Whilst this is not yet a halt to the ID cards scheme - the launch for ID cards is still planned to begin in 2009 - the decision to bin the National Identity Register is definitely a start in chipping away a future ‘database state’. The whole project has been ill-conceived from the start and is a huge waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere. Read more about it here, here - and herere last Green party action against ID cards locally. Plus the excellent website with lots of quotes from a Phil Booth who is not me and is no relation but does say lots of wise things - read more about the nonsense arguments that try to justify spendfing vast sums of our money on ID cards at: no2id.net