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Why we need ID cards - we don't (2009)
ID cards will:
- not help protect people from identity fraud and theft.
- wiill not ensure that people are who they say they are
- will not tackle illegal working and immigration abuse
- will not disrupt the use of false and multiple identities by criminals and those involved in terrorist activity
- will prevent free public services from being used by those who need them
- enable easier access to public services. A qualified maybe.
- let the Government track all of your financial interactions (above a certain amount)
- stop you working, travelling far in the UK, buying a car, getting health care if any kind of mistake is made in your computer record.
If you have seen the page http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/passports-and-immigration/id-cards/why-we-need-id-cards/ then you'll see I've tried to copy what they've said but teling the truth, not the Big Lie that the Home Office is pushing.
Identity Theft
The Home Office incorrectly estimates identify theft as £1.7 billion in 2006 and keeps trotting out this figure 9or 1.2 billion); you see it all over the web. But closer investigation reveals the true figure is well below that as this figure includes money laundering, Missing trader VAT, bogus callers and even the cost of administering security and ID checks is counted in. A Big lie indeed!
Stopping Terrorists
Not true and even Goverment ministers have said this. A car packed with explosives can do a lot of harm and you don't need an ID card to drive one. Even if the terorists had ID cards, would this have stopped them. It didn't with 9/11 or Madrid train bombs. Foreigners visiting this country for under 3 months won't need ID cards... makes you think.
Multiple Identities
The ID card system proposed hasn't even got card readers budgetted for it. If I flash a convincing fake then unless you can verify it, it means nothing. ID cards have been faked in other countries where they have them.
Prevent You Accessing free Public services
If a mistake is made, and anyone who uses databases can tell you they are never error free then this type of thing can happen to you.
National Identity Register
ID cards aren't just cards like in other country but biometric cards that link you to massive set of databases holding information about you and updated everytime you do something that uses your ID card. If you move house and don't tell them, it's a fine of £1,000.
While it might be convenient for the Govt. to know who you are, where you live, what cars you own and lots of other information it's none of their business unless you are interacting with them. The power this would provide to unknown, possibly unaccountable faceless bureaucrats is not nice. There have been innumerable examples of wrong data or of people abusing (DVLA selling car details to clampers, police officers illegally using the Police National Computer). If you give people that sort of power, it's inevitable that it will be abused.
Making People Suspicious
The UK has, apart from times of war been a fairly easy going place where the Police and public have got along well. However in times when stop and search powers were abused and traffic wardens abusing their authority, the last thing we want to do is to give jobs worths of any type the ability to demand that you prove your identity to them.
ID Cards Help Make Atrocities Easier
The Netherlands had a national register before WWII. It recorded religion. When the Nazis invaded they used the register to identify and send Jews to concentration camps. "Before World War II there were about 140,000 Jews living in The Netherlands. The Nazis got their hands on about 108,000 of them. Only 5,000 of those 108,000 survived the Holocaust."
Likewise in Rwanda, ID cards helped identify Tutsis who were murdered in hundreds of thousands.
For more information and to help oppose Identity cards in the UK, join No2id.
