No "ID Card" scheme 

There's now a national Lib Dem campaign on this issue.

I do have some minor issues about how it is presented, but nevertheless still endorse it wholeheartedly.  Go to the campaign Website* to sign the national Lib Dem petition.

In fact, the government's scheme can do very little except invade your privacy.

"The scheme is voluntary."  "There is no requirement to carry your card at all times."

Well, there's "voluntary" and then there's voluntary...

They propose that you won't be able to go abroad, get health treatment, draw your state pension, or other benefits to which you are entitled unless you are in the scheme.  So, "voluntary" doesn't mean you have much choice!

And if you aren't compelled to carry your card, then neither is a terrorist, refugee, or any of the other people that the government says the scheme will control...

Remember that whatever they charge you when you apply for a card, you'll still have to pay the whole bill - via your taxes.  You can bet that when this takes effect, it will look as if you pay less than that £93 fee, but the rest will have to come out of other tax revenue that ought to be spent on schools, police, the health service and so on.

"Bio-metrics" sounds very upmarket and high-tech, but independent academics who specialise in this area say that the technology has a failure rate of between 1 in 10 and 1 in 6.  Basically that means that they can scan a face, finger and eye prints - and the scheme still cannot be relied upon to look up who this person really is!

The real tragedy is that a different kind of identity scheme could be liberating and helpful.

What lies behind any such scheme is a computer database - the card itself is virtually irrelevant.  The key is actually an ID number - and we already have National Insurance numbers...  The number gives the entry point to the database.  All the card itself needs to do is to help someone remember their number!  (And the less it does, the better: cards can be forged.)

The other thing that is necessary for a liberating scheme is for each individual to own their own information - as we do at present.  And equally as at present, the police and other authorities can get access to our private information by applying to a court.  The civil liberties issue arises from those authorities (plus others that you and I wouldn't think of) are given free access to everything that HMG (not you) wants to record.

Instead, imagine that you could choose what information to put on the computer.  Instead of having to carry umpteen different cards, simply remembering your NI number could be enough.

The final element necessary is that "ID Terminals" must be made available almost everywhere - tens of millions of them.  That sounds like a big problem, but think how many credit- and debit-card terminals there are already - and remember that the ID terminal could do that job as well.

These new terminals would have to be a bit cleverer than the old ones - with a screen to show your picture so check-out clerks could see it (and probably also with a finger-print scanner) - but they'd still not need to be as clever as a modern mobile phone.  And in the sort of quantity needed, they wouldn't be that expensive.

A scheme like that really could tackle identity fraud - and the banks could help pay for the scheme, since it would save them needing their own ID system and would reduce their fraud costs.

There is no need for Keighley Lib Dems to have our own petition: NO2ID is coordinating an excellent campaign.  These links to their web pages will open new browser windows.  You can:

• Sign their petition
• Read "all about the UK ID scheme"
• Read about the NO2ID organisation
• It is also illuminating to read the govermnment's response to NO2ID.  Read it carefully - to see what they don't say, as well as what they do!