Identifying the Problem

As the government plans to introduce ID cards on a voluntary basis in Manchester, I am forced to stop and think for a second, why? Why ID cards? Why voluntary? Why Manchester? Does anyone have the answers to these questions?

For two years I lived in Peru. National identity cards are compulsory in Peru, and when people asked to see my British ID card they were surprised to learn I don’t have one and asked who I identify myself or prove that I am British. I always found it difficult to explain that our society functions fine without ID cards. I had to have a Peruvian ‘Foreignership’ ID card myself, which in a country where everyone is always asking for your ID number actually makes life easier. People who do not have ID cards in Peru, who are usually poor and illiterate people from remote or rural communities, are severely limited in the exercise of their civil rights, since they are neither recognised by the state as existing or being a citizen.

Another thing which surprised me was to observe that ID cards in Peru very often facilitated crimes such as identity theft, and people are now and again arrested and sometimes even convicted of crimes committed either by someone who has stolen their identity, or who happens to have an identical name. This was made worse until recently by the fact that the national ID database, including all details from the cards and the photo was accessible to anyone online.

I think the UK government will be shocked to realise that its ID card scheme won’t work in tackling serious crime or identity theft. Perhaps I could accept voluntary non-biometric ID cards as an alternative to passports, except that having a passport will be a pre-requisite to getting an ID card!

What frightens me most about this entire charade, is that suggestion that foreign non-EU citizens resident in the UK, my wife included, will be the first people to be obligated to carry ID cards. What kind of state has Britain turned into? I was at first surprised, but now understand fully what my wife said shortly after she first arrived in Britain, that there is less freedom in this country. Peru may well be a bureaucratic nightmare, but at the end of the day, you get what you want and the state doesn’t interfere (even when it should do) and personal liberty abounds.