Say no to ID cards

After the election earlier this year, ID cards once again came back onto the political agenda with the government re-introducing a bill; This despite no changes having been made since the damming report by the LSE. There is alot of misinformation being put about – one particularly common piece being the suggestion, that “other EU countries have ID cards already, so they can’t be all that bad an idea”. This simplistic viewpoint may easily sway the uninformed, but fortunately Liberty trivially dismissed this argument in testimony to a Commons Select Committee:

(1) Not comparing like with like:

• No other common law countries have them. The only other common law country in the EU (Ireland) opposes them.
• ID card schemes across Europe differ wildly in function and form.
• Cherry-picking selective aspects of policy in other European countries is nonsensical. For example, Germany has a fully compulsory ID card scheme but some of the strongest privacy laws in Europe (a constitutional right and the equivalent of a privacy “tort”). If we are to emulate their card, why not their safeguards?
• Differences of history and culture lie behind the fact that other EU countries have ID card schemes of some sort. There are two separate issues raised by the Committee’s question: (i) why did they bring them in the first place? (ii) why do they still have them?

  • (i) Origin of ID card schemes in Europe

    The majority of EU countries with ID card schemes have had them in place for a long period of time (France have had them in some form since 19th century; Belgium since 1919; Greece since the 1940s; Portugal, Spain, Germany and Italy since they were ruled by fascist governments). The timing means that there hasn’t been any real, modern public debate in these countries?it’s wrong to imply they have positively endorsed ID cards when they just haven’t abolished them.

  • (ii) Retention of those schemes

    The schemes have been retained for various reasons, although primarily they have been retained in the absence of a “positive” reason to abolish them (this was acknowledged by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, in his evidence to the Home Office?the long-standing existence of ID cards means they’ve become a largely unquestioned aspect of society in many of these countries). Another key reason for their retention is the fact that military service is compulsory in many continental European countries and so the relationship between the citizen and state reflects this duty.

In the aftermath of the London bombings, the subject ID cards may well receive renewed attention. Although Charles Clarke has admitted they would have done nothing to prevent the attacks, telling he said he would still on balance like to have them, the implication being ‘just in case they were useful’.
We should not let ourselves be conned into accepting ID cards on the flimsy grounds they’re currently based. Ensure you’re informed by reading the ID cards FAQ and keep abreast of everything going on through Privacy International