To ID Card Or Not To ID Card?

Big Data Big Brother Big Problem

‘BritCard’ (Wikimedia)

I heard the rumblings a few days ago about the new attempt by PM Starmer to bring back ID cards. Tony Blair had tried and failed about a decade ago. Then last night on BBC Newsnight, it was announced that Starmer would be announcing the policy in a speech today at the Global Progress Action Summit in London. He has done just that.

They are to be mandatory. He argues that such mandatory digital ID cards will combat migrants working illegally and make it easier for people to use Government services. PM Starmer said,

“That is why today I am announcing this Government will make a new, free-of-charge, digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this Parliament.”

Starmer continued,

“For too many years, it’s been too easy for people to come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally because, frankly, we have been squeamish about saying things that are clearly true,”

and added,

“It’s not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages. But the simple fact is that every nation needs to have control over its borders. We do need to know who is in our country.”

That is the main reason being given for requiring every citizen of the UK to have a mandatory ID card, which will be on your mobile phone, to stop illegal immigration.

My main rejection of these ID cards are that they are mandatory. You cannot opt out as you can in many countries in Europe. But opting out would of course make the point of these ID cards pointless and redundant for the ‘reason’ or any ‘reason’ given. So it is a straightforward “NO” from me.

Not even life-saving vaccines are mandatory yet, recently we have witnessed the deadly increase in measles because of rejection by doubters, fuelled by irresponsible misinformation, and so herd immunity no longer provides a safety net. I am at a loss to think of anything in our individualistic and freedom-loving world that is mandatory.

The UK has only previously had mandatory ID cards during wartime. Think on that. The last tranche was scrapped in 1952.

The main reason given is to stop illegal migrants from working or renting somewhere to live or exist in the UK. To make us all required to have a ‘BritCard’ is absurd. It is cracking a nut with a sledgehammer.

PM Starmer tried to sweeten this attempted ID pill with a plea to our modern digitalized status today, as if another form of digital ID is just an extra dimension to our digital lives. He said in the speech today,

“We all carry a lot more digital ID now than we did 20 years ago, and I think that, psychologically, it plays a different part.”

Just water off the digital duck’s back? How disingenuous. Most of us realise how little of our digital ID we are in control of now. We are everywhere. That is not an argument for more, but a much-needed necessity of us taking back control of our digital identity now. Every single day, there is a new breach of our data held by private companies and, more importantly, by our governments. We have seen time and again that governments and tech giants fail to protect people’s personal data.

Cybersecurity experts have blasted the system, claiming it could allow hackers to extort billions from British taxpayers. Chris Linnell, head of global data privacy at Bridewell, said identity data would ‘collectively create a tempting target’ for cyber criminals. He continued,

‘Every organisation faces the very real risk of being subject to a cyber-attack, and government departments are no exception. Given the nature of the data that would be held within a centralised database, the infrastructure will undoubtedly be a target for hackers.’

The civil liberty group Big Brother Watch has again warned against their introduction.

However, a spokesperson for the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) said:

“Digital ID can and should be a gateway to government services, whether that’s reporting potholes or even voting.”

Pardon? “Potholes”?

That's what they said. You could not make it up, could you? And more ID to vote? We have enough documentation already. Voter fraud is not an issue, nor is illegal migration. It is all about information. And the control of it and the use it can be put to. Not for your benefit. For the benefit of those who have accumulated your data. Nothing is free in this world, and yet the Starmer government will be giving you a ‘BritCard’ for free. I wonder why?

Because your data is priceless. It is your identity. But you have taken years to become that person who is the sum of his or her digital data, and private tech companies such as Palantir, which will be outsourced the ‘BritCard’ contract for data storage, will know everyone in the UK — what they do, how they live, and how they think. This IS the very definition of BIG BROTHER.

It is not the Orwellian creation from 1984, but the Data Empire that colonised humanity through the Internet in the 21st century and exists now in vast data banks. And who is in control of the storage and this priceless information? Not us. It is given away for free. We have already given away enough of our freedom. Once you give your freedoms away, whether in small bytes or huge chunks of universal freedoms, then it is almost impossible to regain them.

Only a war or revolution will suffice to rebalance humanity’s lost freedoms. So PM Starmer and Labour Together and Tony Blair, as I said, it's a very big “NO” from me.

Sadie Seroxcat