news analysis - identity cards
WORKERS, MAR 2005 ISSUE
THE GOVERNMENT wants to control us, the citizens, and a key weapon in its armoury is identity cards. Its proposed scheme is draconian — ID cards would be compulsory. And it is costly — even the government admits that the scheme could cost £5.5 billion. The likely price to each of us is £35 to £40 for a card without a passport, and £85 for an enhanced biometric passport. It's not as if there is public demand: a recent poll suggested only 18% of us would be happy to pay even £30 for a card.
ID cards are an EU idea which Labour accepted in 2000, well before 9/11 gave it the excuse that the scheme was to do with fighting terrorism. And the only research ever conducted into the effect of ID cards on terrorism concluded there was none. Of the 25 countries that have been most adversely affected by terrorism since 1986, 80% have national identity cards, a third of which incorporate biometrics. This research was unable to uncover any instance where the presence of an identity card system in those countries was seen as a significant deterrent to terrorist activity.
Terrorists have traditionally moved across borders using tourist visas (such as those who were involved in the US terrorist attacks), or they live in the country and are equipped with legitimate identification cards (such as those who carried out the Madrid bombings).
Fraud reduction?
Governments have traditionally claimed that ID cards would reduce benefit fraud. But this is not true either. A junior minister at the Department of Work and Pensions, Chris Pond, revealed that of the estimated £2 billion total annual benefit fraud, only £50 million, 2.5%, came from claiming a false identity. Almost all benefit fraud was based on people lying about their circumstances, not about their identity. The £5.5 billion cost of a new ID infrastructure for benefits would be 110 times the annual loss through false identity.
Nor is there evidence that ID cards would reduce illegal immigration or any other crimes. Police need evidence linking individuals to crimes, not evidence linking people to cards. Giving police the power to stop people without reason is an unnecessary and unacceptable extension of the state's powers. It is part of Labour's dictatorial agenda.
The government may try to introduce ID cards under the Royal Prerogative, by-passing Parliament, as the previous government did with the new plastic ID card-style driving licence with photographs. This was introduced from July 1996, to comply with an EU directive. The Home Office has confirmed that the ID card scheme comes from the EU: significantly, the European standard to which the driving licence/identity card would need to conform does not allow for national symbols, only the European Circle of Stars.
We don't have to accept these cards. The Australians defeated the idea in 1987, after massive public protests split the government. New Zealanders also defeated the idea. Canada abandoned the idea last year after public protests.