Sunday
(0)This was too good to pass on... while browsing the Telegraph pages and stumbling across their Review of 2004, I must have caught one of the billion monkeys at work!
I will not carry an ID card. This may mean that I follow Perry out of the city that I happen to love, but I will not carry an ID card.
(Just as a sad fact though, I am about to be fingerprinted for the first time in my life. For my job in equities research, it is necessary that I be licensed by the regulatory bodies of both the UK and US financial markets, and in order to be licensed in the US the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that I submit my fingerprints to them, which they will then apparently submit to the FBI. So it is in fact an American government organisation who are going to be the first to treat me like a common criminal in this way. This does make me wonder where precisely I am going to go if I leave London).
Posted by Michael Jennings at December 26, 2004 07:54 PM
Michael, I agree totally with what you say, but why on this post? Too much mulled wine?
Posted by Gabriel at December 26, 2004 08:30 PM
Gabriel: As it happened I had just been browsing the FAQ on the No2id site here, and I came back seething with rage to such an extent that any mention of David Blunkett was enough to set me off.
Posted by MIchael Jennings at December 26, 2004 09:17 PM
Michael,
Surely the recent history of the Equities 'industry' , both here and in the US, more than warrants the general label of 'Suspect', if not 'Downright Criminal'. Therefore justifiying the fingerprinting and whatever else 'they' can think of to deter future skulduggery.
After the disasters of the past couple of years, it is fair to assume that no-one connected with that industry is above suspicion, from brokers and dealers, to CEO's, pundits, advisors and commentators, I am sure you know that old saying about not playing in the cesspit, if you do not want to smell like s...!
I am sure you smell like roses, but you get my gist...
Posted by ernest young at December 26, 2004 10:08 PM
So it is in fact an American government organisation who are going to be the first to treat me like a common criminal in this way.
Rather reinforces the point I have been making all along that those who think the Americans don't or won't do this kind of thing as well are deluding themselves, doesn't it?
EG
Posted by Euan Gray at December 27, 2004 10:28 AM
Rather reinforces the point I have been making all along that those who think the Americans don't or won't do this kind of thing as well are deluding themselves, doesn't it?
No, it doesn't. The fight at least goes on there, whereas in Britain, the fight is over and the bad guys have won. It is the people who cannot see that who are deluding themselves.
Posted by Perry de Havilland at December 27, 2004 11:53 AM
No, it doesn't.
Well actually it does. America, last bastion of liberty and individualism, defender of the private person against the unlimited state, exemplar to all of us Europeans who let the government walk all over us - America is going to biometrically identify and track individuals who have done nothing wrong *before* those nasty horrible British statists. Hmm.
in Britain, the fight is over and the bad guys have won
The uncharitable might argue that this is not least due to the facts that (a) the "good guys" give up and run away as soon as it gets difficult, and (b) certain of the "good guys" urge people to vote for parties which might change things but refuse personally to vote for anyone or participate in any way in the democratic process, and then wonder why it all goes bad.
Not, of course, that I am sufficiently uncharitable to share such an opinion, but one can see a certain logic in it...
EG
Posted by Euan Gray at December 28, 2004 02:00 PM
