Thursday, August 04, 2005
Being right!
It is nice to be proved right, even if being so does not change the proposals we are fighting one iota.
The Guardian reports this morning that:
The government has admitted that it has been guilty of "overselling" the case for a compulsory national identity card scheme in Britain and conceded that it will not prove a panacea for fraud, terrorism or the abuse of public services.
Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister now responsible for identity cards, has also admitted that "in its enthusiasm" the government also mistakenly emphasised the benefits to the state rather than arguing its benefits to the individual citizen.
Well, yes. The question now has to be asked that if the Government accept that ID cards will not prevent terrorism, fraud or the abuse of public services, then how can they justify spending billions of pounds of public money on developing them, when that cash could be so much better spent on tackling those very problems? Equally, what is the benefit to the individual citizen and can it justify the £300 charge they will have to pay to carry an ID card?
It is time that the Government admitted that their proposals are in tatters and abandoned them altogether.
The Guardian reports this morning that:
The government has admitted that it has been guilty of "overselling" the case for a compulsory national identity card scheme in Britain and conceded that it will not prove a panacea for fraud, terrorism or the abuse of public services.
Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister now responsible for identity cards, has also admitted that "in its enthusiasm" the government also mistakenly emphasised the benefits to the state rather than arguing its benefits to the individual citizen.
Well, yes. The question now has to be asked that if the Government accept that ID cards will not prevent terrorism, fraud or the abuse of public services, then how can they justify spending billions of pounds of public money on developing them, when that cash could be so much better spent on tackling those very problems? Equally, what is the benefit to the individual citizen and can it justify the £300 charge they will have to pay to carry an ID card?
It is time that the Government admitted that their proposals are in tatters and abandoned them altogether.
Labels: ID
