- The Observer,
- Sunday May 25, 2003
Mr Blunkett's ambitions for each of us to own a card carrying personal and employment details with identifying electronic fingerprint or iris scan, springs from a dangerous illiberality and a belief that the closer the state keeps watch on its citizens the better. Knowing who's where may make policing petty crime easier - as would kitting out every home with CCTV - but it represents an infringement of individual privacy and liberty that the British have always resisted. The argument that those living orderly crime-free lives have nothing to fear from such an increase in state surveillance of our everyday lives fails to impress as do comparisons with our European neighbours.
The arguments against are clear and unchanging. Identity cards create new crimes and criminals while being blunt and ineffectual weapons against fraud and identity theft. They are expensive (Mr Blunkett bypasses Treasury objections only by suggesting we pay £25 for the privilege of holding records of our own fingerprints). Above all, a regime of ID cards, whether kept in a drawer or carried on our person, will create new tensions between police and ethnic minority communities, undoing much positive progress. The divisive 'sus' laws will be back with a vengeance.
The Home Secretary hopes to bring forward legislation after a general election. We hope the Cabinet will change his mind.
