Groups call for ID cards to be shelved
Civil liberties groups and privacy
campaigners have called upon David Blunkett to shelve his plans for a
national identity card in the wake of today's damning report from the
Home Affairs Select Committee.
A coalition of anti-ID card groups has
pledged to defeat the proposals in Parliament should a Bill be put
forward later this year. With senior Cabinet Ministers including Jack
Straw and Patricia Hewitt known to be opposed to Blunkett's Plan,
campaigners believe that if legislation can be held up until after the
General Election, the ID cards may never see the light of day.
Mark Littlewood, national co-ordinator of
the NO2ID Coalition said:
"The more people hear about ID cards, the
less they like them. With opinion polls showing that around 3.5million
adults would refuse to carry a card, the government needs to ask itself
exactly how many more enemies it can afford to make. Proposals for
national identity cards should be sheleved immediately and permanently."
Dr. Ian Brown, Director of FIPR
(Foundation for Information Policy
Research) - a supporter of no2id - said:
"The committee has raised a whole series
of very grave concerns about the scheme. ID cards won't tackle
terrorism, won't cut fraud and won't reduce crime. The government's
plans are an expensive and dangerous folly."
ID cards expert, Owen Blacker of internet
privacy group Stand said:
"This report should cause the Home
Secretary to rethink. Not only do ID cards present a very real threat to
individual privacy, but they would be a technological disaster. The
government's record on IT porjects is truly awful. If they press ahead,
people should brace themselves for this running way over budget and
experiencing major malfunctions."
You can find more information at
https://www.no2id.net
July 2004