My apologies for writing very little for a while. I have ideas but not much time. And I am a slow writer. By way of explanation if not excuse:
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Normal service will be resumed as soon as possibleMarch 18th, 2007 |
 8 comments to Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible |
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But March the 26th is eight days away, not ten. You might want to rethink that banner a little!
All very good, guy, but what is happening about these pesky ID cards? We here in GreatSouthernLand don’t get much info about these trifles from our news sources, but I’m assuming it’s another way to seem to be doing something about crime without worrying about civil liberties. 20 years ago, our Prime Minister ChickenHawke tried something similar, but it was defeated due to technical difficulties. No such chance there?
Thank you for that. They are supposed to be self-updating. I have pointed a technical person at it.
nick g.,
It is an all things to all men scheme. gov.uk is currently pushing immigration as the main pretext. Hence the UK Borders Bill, introducing fingerprinting of, compulsory ID cards for, and datasharing about, non-EU UK residents, such as all those Aussies.
Worth paying attention to what goes on at home, too. The Australian Parliament just rushed through, with extraordinary celerity, a remarkably similar scheme. See here.
“gov.uk is currently pushing immigration as the main pretext.” I wrote. I should probably elucidate further that this seems to be because it is the only one that retains popular support and belief. Staggering numbers of people seem to believe that foreigners are threatening, and that therefore having a card that shows you aren’t a foreigner – or that you are a licensed foreigner – is a good idea.
I know the “therefore” introduces a non-sequitur, but we are dealing with the wisdom of crowds here.
My business partner just had to (hurriedly) apply for a renewal passport several days before he had to fly to Miami for yet another music industry events. We took great steps to ensure that he had the right forms, the signature signed correctly within the box and various proof of address, ID and so on and then I took 2 photos of him and stuck them on the form …
BIG MISTAKE!
His photo was of him looking ever so slightly away from the camera and it showed him with a slight smile on his face. Under the new biometric image system you may not smile and you must look exactly at the camera. Not surprisingly they sent him off to use their own photo booth, at an exorbitant charge, and told him to wait in queue yet again for the passport (he paid £89 for the one hour passport application).
Yeah, we get some hints about it here, though this Privacy Foundation seems like something worth looking into.
What a difference a change of government makes! Howard was against this sort of thing, when Hawke was the Prime Meddler. When Howard gets the job, he’s for an ID card! Who’d have thought that a politician couldn’t be trusted? Once, when we called him ‘Honest’ John, we meant it. Now we only use this expression ironically.
I know that this is the strategy that the government are using but I question whether this is really reflected in the attitudes of the population. Immigration causes discontent and people associate it with the Labour government. Those same people will not want to take ID cards from the same Labour government and will question their motives for promoting such a scheme. I believe that this applies to the educated at least. I may be wrong of course.