Letter to the Lords

I have sent the following letter to the Lords from my area who will be voting on the ID cards Bill next months:

Dear X,
I am writing to you in advance of the House of Lords debate on the Identity Cards Bill, which is scheduled for 6th March 2006, as, being from XXX – where I spent the first 18 years of my life – I note that you are one of the Members who is the most local to me. I am writing to ask that you vote against the amendments that were passed by the House of Commons and in favour of the reinstating the amendments that your House inserted into the Bill at the start of the year.

I am against the Bill for a number of reasons, including the following:

1. They will not prevent Terrorism, as has been shown by the unfortunate experience of people in Madrid, and also the Home Secretary himself stated as much in the aftermath of the London bombings last July.


2. They will cost an exorbitant amount of money, according to the London School of Economics (LSE) in their review which they published last year, and have confirmed in subsequent updates. It is worth pointing out that the Government has not been able to counter their report, despite claiming that their own figures have been vetting by the accountancy firm KPMG, which the Government refuses to publish.


3. The Salisbury convention does not apply in this situation, as the Government’s election manifesto only committed it to a “Voluntary” scheme, not a compulsory scheme, which is what the effect of the Bill will be.


4. It has been shown that the technology does not work. For example, in tests, it has been shown that the facial recognition software only works on people who are white and young, i.e. they do not work on people from minority groups or are elderly. I do not feel it is in the Government’s interests to be passing a Bill which is in direct conflict with the Race Relations Act 1976, as well as various pieces of legislation on age discrimination. I would suggest that you see the LSE’s report for more.


5. The government does not have an encouraging record when it comes to large-scale technology projects, for example, passports, the Civil Aviation Authority’s computer systems, NHS software upgrades.


6. The proposed database to go with the cards is not something that should be encouraged, especially with the current fears over “Identity Theft”. As everybody’s personal details will be stored centrally, it only takes a few determined hackers to get into the system and cause complete havoc to the whole system.


7. It has been shown in the Netherlands that biometric cards can be hacked (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/30/dutch_biometric_passport_crack/ ).

Yours sincerely,

If you want to, you are freely entitled to copy/amend this to send to your own Lords, just link to this article. Thanks!