id cards

I’ve been reading into the id cards debate of lately and to tell you the truth, I’m stumped! I really don’t get why people get their knickers in such a twist about id cards and population database. When is it ever not going to be an advantage to know who all live in our country and what they are up to??

I carry about my driver’s license at the moment so I don’t really see what the big deal is about carrying another card about with me. Surely it goes without saying that if someone is up to no good in the streets, we should expect to be able to easily identify them? Imagine the about of our money that is spent each day chasing the details of tonnes of people who have been stopped in the streets without id?

Years from now we’ll have a national DNA database with samples taken at birth. This is just common sense. Put it this way, I don’t have a criminal record at the moment so if I decided to indiscriminately rape someone the DNA found at the scene of the crime would be no good unless something else pointed the investigation in my direction. If there were a DNA database, the police would be knocking my door that day.

This doesn’t just go for serious crimes, how many break-ins and car thefts could be solved this way. Simple common sense!

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been looking into this debate. Once site in particular which you’re welcome to have a look over for yourself here sets out the argument against the use of id cards. As I said, have a look over it yourself but the main points against it seem to be

1. It’ll mean that there will be a large database containing details about everyone.
2. Different government departments will be able to cross reference data.
3. It won’t stop terrorism.
4. Biometrics won’t work because some people are missing an eye?!
5. The government won’t be able to administer the project properly.
6. It’s too expensive.
7. They will “provide a pretext for those in authority—public or private—to question individuals who stand out for reasons of personal appearance or demeanour.”

And my favourite…

8. You could end up becoming some sort of Sandra Bullock “non-person” if you’re wiped from the database!

I think that just a quick glance over these and you’re thinking that there really isn’t a good case against them? Just going over some of these….

1. I think the large database with details about everyone is the main objective, why is this such a bad thing?
2. Surely information passing freely between government departments should be an objective of the government? How many tragedies have taken place because social services didn’t pass on appropriate information to the police service (Fred West murders).
3. It might not but surely it’s more protection than nothing at all.
4. I’m sure that if someone’s eye is missing, we can put this information in the database to use and alternative means of information.
5. This point I would maybe agree with but if it’s a good idea in principal, why shouldn’t be try it. We’ll get it right eventually.
6. So are nuclear weapons but we still seem to have them…
7. I don’t see how identity cards are going to make it more likely besides if the police aren’t stopping and questioning those of odd personal appearance or demeanour; they’re not doing their job?
8. Talk about scare mongering!


In the end, it just seems to me that people are saying that this is a bad idea “just because it is..”. At the end of the day if you’d asked people in the street 20 years ago if they were for cameras on every street corner watching their every move, of course they wouldn’t like it and they’d think it was a big brother nation. In practice though, it’s now wide spread and many streets have been made a lot safer because of it. Id cards aren’t a nice idea but at the end of the day it’s just a natural progression that is common sense whether we like the idea or not.