So, the election over and done with, the government has got back to the business in hand, which in this particular case is ID cards. Now as a general idea the concept of ID cards doesn’t particularly bother me, but the the proposal in this bill, and the way its portrayed most certainly does. It seems rather unlikely it’ll do anything significant to combat terrorism or organized crime, since they’ll either just not bother with using ID cards at all, or more likely just counterfeit cards from Joe Public. Of course since this is intended to be the ‘authoratative’ ID source, Joe Public will have that much harder a time with this identity theft. Oh, ordinary citizens will not be compelled to use ID cards anyway
Q. What if I simply refused to use the card?
A. From Mr Blunket… You will not be required to use a card unless you wish to work, use the banking or health system, travel or receive benefits.
Hmm, so basically it may not be compulsory, but unless you are in fact a terrorist, there’s no way you’ll be able to live practically without one. Government-0, Terrorists-1, Civil Liberties-0. Read the FAQ for all the details, and just be thankful for the government track record (incompetance) at succesfully implementing these kind of large scale IT projects.
I’ve just returned from a very pleasent trip to France, 3 days in Paris, followed by 3 days out in the country in the very small village of Valliere just outside Sens (more or less between Champagne and Burgundy regions I’m told). Paris was looking mighty fine, if rather hot – I’ve decided that June / July / August is probably not the most comfortable time to be doing the tourist thing in Paris – I’d much rather have just spent the time lazying around on the banks of the Seine in the glorious sun. Down in Valliere, with Claire & Richard and friends, basically to consume a freshly roasted wild boar. Yes, there are many pictures to come in the next few weeks as I scan through the various rolls of film. In fact some on my first rolls of Kodak T-Max are really rather nice – the superfine grain has given a gloriously smooth / soft finish to them. I’ll definitely be shooting some more T-Max in the very near future.
A little over two weeks back I made my first (yes really!) trip to the ICA cinema to see Cafe Lumiere. There’s not really any significant plot to speak of, but then that’s not really the point of this film – its all really about getting to feel the know the regular, everyday life of the lead character – the very cute Yoko. As someone who’s never been to the far east, let alone Japan or Tokyo, just observing the cinematography was satisfaction in itself, giving the viewer access to a slice of Tokyo life altogether different from that shown by Lost in Translation