The case for ID cards is a case not about liberty but about the modern world. Biometrics give us the chance to have secure identity and the bulk of the ID cards' cost will have to be spent on the new biometric passports in any event.
Yet..
I am not claiming ID cards, and the national identity database that will make them effective, are a complete solution to these complex problems.
So he admits they're a failure!
Nor is the Government alone in believing that biometrics offer us a massive opportunity to secure our identities.
How about some evidence?
I am convinced, as are our security services, that a secure identity system will help us counter terrorism and international crime.
Speak to people in Madrid about this...
It will also help us tackle the problem of identity fraud, which already costs £1.7 billion annually
By having a big, centralised database of everyone's details?!
The National Identity Register will help improve protection for the vulnerable, enabling more effective and quicker checks on those seeking to work, for example, with children. It should make it much more difficult, as has happened tragically in the past, for people to slip between the cracks.
Praying on the public's fear of Paedophiles & Ian Huntley. Not a reason, barely an excuse... Anyway, what if the data's wrong? Who pays for screwing up people livelihoods?
Crime detection rates, which fell steadily for decades, should also be boosted. Police... will be able to compare 900,000 outstanding crime-scene marks with fingerprints held centrally.
No such thing as a presumption of innocence then... not bad for a Barrister.
Biometric technology will enable us, in a relatively short period of time, to cut delays, improve access and make secure a whole array of services.
See the LSE's ID cards report on the problems involving biometrics...
It should prevent us having to tell every agency individually when we move house. In future, we could be automatically alerted when our passports are running out.
A fantastic use of £X billion! I'm sure people are capable of looking at the inside of their passport for the expiration date...
I know this will outrage some people but, in a world in which we daily provide information to a whole host of companies and organisations and willingly carry a variety of cards to identify us, I don't think the civil liberties argument carries much weight.
A lot of completely separate databases - which are completely voluntary and free - are a hell of a lot better than one costing billions and is compulsory. Also the worst thing about the current ones is junk mail, not thousand pound fines and a criminal record!
Individuals will have the right to see what information is held on them; the register will not contain medical records or tax and benefits information
... at the moment... anyway, Tony, your own government has said medical records WILL be on there!
It was also very clear from last week's arguments about surveillance and the DNA database that the public, when anyone bothers to ask them, are overwhelmingly behind CCTV being used to catch or deter hooligans, or DNA being used to track down those who have committed horrific crimes. And that's what surveys suggest, too, about their position on ID cards.
Any chance of evidence of the effectiveness of CCTV? As far as I can tell it just moves crime into another area - this is used an excuse to have more cameras, not scrap 'em on the grounds of being completely ineffective... Surveys, apart from Home Office ones, show that the more the public know more about ID cards, the less they want them!
On present estimates, biometric passports make up 70 per cent – or around £66 – of the cost of the combined passports/ID cards we want. The additional cost of the ID cards will be less than £30 — or £3 a year for their 10-year lifespan.
Any chance of letting us see the evidence for this Tony? after all the innocent have nothing to fear, do they?
He also did a press conference today, which gave another "reason":
But he believed that it was more an issue of "modernity" and of "modern life" - and he backed the use of these new technologies to tackle the new types of crime.
In that case, I want to be Old Skool, mutha'fucka!
But he also confirmed the timetable for Britons' cards has slipped to 2009.
A potential election year - that'll be fun!
The Tories have it right:
"He claims they will deal with benefit fraud, whilst his own minister pointed out that 95% of benefit fraud is caused by people lying about their circumstances, not their identity.
"He claims they will tackle terrorism, whilst his home secretary on the 7th July last year said 'I doubt it would make a difference'.
"...Microsoft tells us it is more likely to trigger identity fraud on a massive scale.... it will almost certainly cost £20bn, will solve very few problems... it will be Labour's final act of ineffective and expensive authoritarianism."
"All the evidence from Britain and abroad shows that big government databases just become the favoured target for ever more sophisticated organised criminals."
UPDATE: Reading Bliar's comment about them preventing terrorism reminds me of a quote from the sorely-missed World Weary Detective:
The scene: An anonymous provincial town in middle England somewhere. Four plotters gather together in a darkened room. The year is 2008.
Plotter 1: Right everyone. Today is the day. Is everyone ready?
All: YES!
Plotter 1: Is everyone a 'clean skin' that has avoided the attention of the greatest security agencies in the world?
All: YES!
Plotter 1: Does everyone have a rucksack packed with explosive?
All: YES!
Plotter 1: Is everyone fully aware of our warped religious justification for committing mass murder?
All: YES!
Plotter 1: Is everyone suitably brainwashed that they will follow my commands without question?
All: YES!
Plotter 1: Is everyone willing to die in the name of their cause?
All: YES!
Plotter 1: Is everyone in possession of their ID cards?
All: Errr...
Plotter 1: What? What if you require access to key services on the way to cause carnage on the transport infrastructure of Britain?
All: Err...
Plotter 1: Right that's it. Take off those bloody suicide belts. No ID card no mass murder. If it wasn't for that blasted Blair we would have got away with it....
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