By Jo Best, 9 June 2004 13:00
NEWS The man who will be an integral part of the UK's proposed ID card rollout – Information Commissioner Richard Thomas – has slammed the government's plans.
Talking to MPs yesterday at a meeting of the home affairs committee, Thomas said he had treated initial plans with "healthy scepticism" but as more information on the rollout came to light, he became "increasingly alarmed", adding that the cards would be a temptation to criminals.
Thomas - who will be responsible for guaranteeing the ID card data is accessed and used fairly - said the scheme hadn't been presented to the person in the street clearly and the creation of a register of every individual in the UK had been swept under the carpet.
"The introduction of [the] register marks a sea change in the relationship between the state and the individual. It is therefore essential that a clearly defined proposal is brought forward detailing how the scheme is intended to work in practice," he said.
The Information Commissioner will give his official response to the scheme in July.
Comments
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1. Jerrold Baldwin
'You have nothing to worry about except when you have done something wrong.' Ha!
When, civil servants start to question dangerous state-centric initiatives it must be serious.
This madness must be stopped before it wastes a lot of money that should be allocated to hospitals, schools, etc. For a start, I suggest not voting for Labour ever again.
2. Lionel A Smith
Just remember how punch card recorded and analyzed data facilitated the Nazi pogroms during WW2.
This surely has some resonance with the current climate of paranoia about terrorism being used as an excuse to curtail individual freedoms.
3. Steve Watkins
I agree with the previous person. A question to Mr. Howard must be: 'Will you scrap this vile scheme IMMEDIATELY when in office?' And by IMMEDIATELY i mean only 1 second after entering 10 downing street. that's ONE SECOND.
this scheme is evil must be stopped.
4. anonymous
if it helps cut massive housing benefit fraud etc, and thousands of illegal immigrants its well worth the trouble, pc has a lot to answer for.
5. r j french
some of these whingers must have a dark secret which may be unearthed l fear, all the more reason to bring on ID cards asap
6. Ken Hall
This whole compulsary, bio-metric, ID scheme is turning into a massive waste of money, time and will eat away at any shred of goodwill the Government may have left.
Their record to date indicates that, at best, this will be another massive cock-up. As for having something to hide, yes I do. My innocence. Why, in a free country, should I have to prove my innocence and my identity in advance? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I object that I am accused of being guilty of having some dark secret or crime to hide. It is the prospect of a Government in the future abusing this system and creating a totalitarian society that I am afraid of.
If you think that is impossible here (UK) remember that Hitler was democratically elected in 1933. Tyrants come to power within democracies through the drip,drip,drip of innitatives like these. It's another tool in the totalitarian toolkit. Deny them the tools of oppression and they cannot oppress.
Remember your history.