By silicon.com, 13 March 2006 16:45
The government looks set to continue its attempts to steamroller its ID cards legislation through parliament this week, despite evidence that public support for the controversial scheme is collapsing as people - albeit belatedly - begin to realise the flaws in the plans.
A poll of almost 600 silicon.com readers this week shows a dramatic shift in support for the scheme. Back in 2004, 60 per cent favoured ID cards but now 80 per cent oppose the scheme.
The government, unsurprisingly, claims it has successfully made the case for ID cards after MPs voted by a narrow margin in the House of Commons to overturn amendments made by the House of Lords that would have derailed the ID cards bill.
But then why do peers in the Lords continue to oppose key parts of the bill? And why has public opinion appear to have shifted so dramatically against ID cards in recent weeks and months?
The government's line that ID cards will help tackle terrorism, ID fraud, illegal immigration and just about every one of society's ills simply no longer washes with the general public. They've started to wake up to the technical complexity - and many say infeasibility - of a central national identity database, considering the amount of personal information that will be stored on it and the privacy implications of that.
Throughout the ID cards process, instead of directly answering questions about the scheme, the government's response, more often than not, has been to simply rubbish the critics and shout them down like crude school playground bullies.
That approach might be fit for the 'yah-boo' culture on the floor of the House of Commons but it doesn't wash with the man and woman in the street who are increasingly recognising they will be left to foot the bill for this dog's dinner of a scheme. The London School of Economics now reckons there is a £1.8bn black hole in the Home Office ID card figures before the scheme has even got off the ground.
Labour MP Lynne Jones has also this week hit out at Home Office criticisms of her claims that the government is using misleading statements and sleight of hand to push ID cards through parliament.
In a detailed letter to Home Office minister Andy Burnham, Jones carefully deconstructs the government's whole case for ID cards piece by piece, highlighting ministers' failure to answer legitimate questions and various "misleading statements" about the cost and benefits of the scheme.
If the government wants an answer as to why more and more people are openly turning against its ID card plans, it should look no further than the famous quote by Abraham Lincoln who, ironically, was actually criticised over his suppression of civil liberties during the American Civil War.
He said: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Not that we should expect the government to stop trying.
Comments
There are 9 comments. Join the discussion
1. Richard
Good to see democracy in action!
Most people are too busy, or cowed, to worry about issues of principle: They assume that "the government" will look after their best interests.
Increasingly, but too late, people have begun to notice their mistake.
How nice to see this government responding to informed debate, public pressure and opinion!
How nice to see this government reversing its dictatorial agenda!
How nice to see democracy in action!
2. anonymous
While I cannot comment on the possible costs of ID cards, this article is emotive rubbish. I do not believe that 80% of the public are against ID cards, as for the 90% of law abiding people these will form an important safeguard against fraud.
3. Richard Sarson
C'mon out and vote, ye silent 60%majorityof 2004 for ID cards. I know you are in there somewhere, because a YouGov poll last month showed 52% pro against 37% against. (Not a fact deemed worthy of mention by silicon.com.)
I note that only 600 s.com readers have voted so far. How many voted in 2004, I wonder?
I also note, looking at the list of ayes and noes in the House of Commons last night, that all of the Labour MPs who know a lot about IT voted with the government. One might have expected one or or two to rebel, but nobody did. Are they all fools? I think not.
4. Ken Hall
Richard Sarson asks, are the labour MP's that supported the Government over ID cards all fools?
You have to be afool to ask the question, after all, they ARE labour MP's by definition, they are either foolish or corrupt. the Tory and Lib-dems are almost as bad.
As for the ID cards, the public will come to despise them and any party offering to abolish the ID card at the next election will win by a massive landslide.
5. Bill Citrine
A fool and his money is soon parted... the rest of us get robbed!
6. anonymous
A recent film advertisement has been stuck in my mind....
"No-one should fear their Government, a Government should fear it's people"
I think this statement is so true. The current Government have proved over and over again that they are totally incompetent to run this country. It's about time the blind sheep-like public stood up for themselves, say NO to ID cards, so NO to this Government. We have the power to vote these people in, we also have the power to remove them!
The less we do now, the more we'll end up an Orwellian Nazi state whereby our every move is monitored, we're constantly asked for our 'papers', and those who do not comply, will simply disappear in the night.
7. Julian Bennett
If understood Radio4 correctly this morning, not one Labour MP spoke to support the Home Secretary in his attempts to explain how compulsory with a passport means having a choice.
8. Ricky Gunn
The priority for issuing ID cards should be to people who are in receipt of state benefits. I don't believe anyone can accurately state the millions of pounds of taxpayers' money lost in fraudulent claims on the welfare state each year. If someone depends on the state to support them, they cannot object to fair identification. If it deters fraudsters even in some small way, then all to the good. This at least should be the first, if only, application of an ID card system.
9. Mike
The survey was oversimplified: You cannot assume that if someone is broadly in favour of ID cards, they are also in favour of this scheme. These are separate issues.
Yes it would be nice to have a single credit card sized piece of plastic that does everything from provide ID to act as driving licence, store loyalty card, travel pass, ignition key, door key, credit card etc.
BUT
It must be cost effective;
secure;
easily replaced if lost;
hard to duplicate or be used by other people;
confidential so that each external agency can only see information relative to them;
The biometrics must be reliable (<1 failure per million)
AND destroyable so that the database and backups can be destroyed if we are faced by a (even more!) totalitarian government.
The scheme proposed by Tony Blair does not satisfy any of these criteria, so I am against this scheme.