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Analysis: ID cards through the backdoor?

Wed Dec 03 02:04PM

There are many rules in politics. One, which has stood the test of time, is: 'If you can't convince someone of something, put it in a minor clause'.

There's every indication the Home Office intends to do that with ID cards today through the immigration and citizenship bill. It looks like rules allowing immigration officers or policemen to check you identity at ports of entry will be extended throughout the country.

There will be no law requiring you to produce a card, but the legislation would have the effect of making it necessary. How do they get away with it? Well, the rules would only apply to people who have entered the UK. So, as long as you've never left the country, you'll be fine. Feel free to laugh.

This is, in essence, a statement of intent. For some time now it appeared the government was backing down slightly on ID cards and the security agenda in general. The home secretary's promise to impose the cards on all airport workers shrivelled up into a pilot scheme for two airports last month. Private coroner's inquests and 42-day detention both bit the dust.

This morning, everything looks different. Private coroner's inquests will almost certainly be found nestling in the coroners and death investigation bill. ID cards in the immigration bill. Lie detector tests for benefit cheats are on the welfare reform agenda. It seems civil liberties activists, who yesterday thought they had had a relatively successful year, now have every reason to stay active.

The reason analysts are reading so much into this minor clause is because of how far it goes. At no point has anyone in government supporting ID cards admitted British citizens would be forced to provide them on demand in the street, but that is exactly what the clause would do. Refusing the demand could see you landed with a £500 fine or even a prison sentence of up to 51 weeks.

The response was instantaneous. "Sneaking in compulsory identity cards via the back door of immigration law is a cynical escalation of this expensive and intrusive scheme," said Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Ministers seem to be breaking their promise that no one would ever have to carry an ID card. This is a sly and underhand way of extending the ID card scheme by stealth."

Tory immigration minister Damian Green - yes, that one - said: "This scheme will do nothing to improve our security, may make it worse, and will certainly land the taxpayer with a multi-million bill."

And that's not all. In their submission on the bill during consultation, campaign group No2ID highlighted several other ugly aspects.

"NO2ID believes the draft bill represents a massive change to common law rights and culture disguised as codification. It includes provisions which, if implemented, would have serious consequences not only for people from other countries living in or visiting the UK, but also British citizens," they told MPs.

Clause one of the bill makes entry to the UK wholly dependent on identification, rather than your British citizenship. Lose it, or have the government invalidate it, and you will find yourself in legal limbo.

"Though committee members might consider casual incompetence or fraud more likely, the effect for the individual would be the same," No2ID said.

If your documents fail - say because the microchip in the passport ceases to function - you could be deemed not to have entered the UK under clause 22. Suddenly you can be legally 'returned' to whichever country you were last in or held in an immigrant detention centre without remedy. This isn't as unlikely as you might think. The microchip in the new all-singing, all-dancing biometric passport has a two-year manufacturer's warranty. The passport is meant to last for ten.

This is what the Home Office had to say: "It is simply wrong to claim there are any plans whatsoever to make identity cards compulsory for British citizens or to require British citizens to have an ID card at all times and present it when asked. To maintain effective immigration control it is only right that we ask everyone attempting to enter the UK to produce a valid identity document."

The question is, do you believe them?

Ian Dunt

Comments41 - 50 of 84

I have been in the past a Victim of I.D. fraud and you can easily solve the inherent problem by telling the credit rating companies that they cannot authorise a card/loan/mortgage without you first supplying a fingerprint..
It costs nothing and can be administered fairly painlessly...
ID.cards is just another Big Brother Initiative from this ZaNuLabour Government that i have to admit I worked to have elected back in '97. What an Idiot I was...
Never Never Again will I

From dmskinuk on Wed Dec 03 04:27PM
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Why shout for the TORIES/ LIBERALS /LABOUR or any other party . Haven't you woken up to the fact that they are all the same what ever they call their selves soon as they get in power its "@#$% to you we're all right". It's about time the so called goverment stopped working against one another and did somthing for us. This ID card thing is just another way of saying "stuff what you want we will do what WE want " WHAT WE WANT IS ONE PARTY THAT LISTENS TO WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT AND STOPS LINING THEIR OWN FAT POCKETS

From whitewolfie55 on Wed Dec 03 04:27PM
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simon.j.lowe
Yes, I personally do not have much of a problem with ID cards. Or with having my emails and phone tapped, or with curfews. I am happy to be a good citizen and stay in my home like a good girl, afterall I do not go out at night unless it is to a council meeting. I do not drink or cause trouble. I have been police checked at the highest level as I work with children. But where will it end? I have a huge problem with the idea of a compulsory microchip, which according to policy makers I know is not so far away as we might think.

From stannary_babe on Wed Dec 03 04:29PM
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ID cards are NOTHING to do with terrorism or the threat of terrorism.
But yet?
"The Terrorism Act 2006, the Identity Cards Act and the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act all received royal assent on Thursday 30 March, becoming law."
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/new-ac
ts
Its all about an agenda of fear and control based on the lie that it can 'protect' us. I'm sorry but we must resist this first through democracy. If they still wont listen; there must be protests...and when I say protests I mean on the scale of the poll tax riots.

From hosseinturner on Wed Dec 03 04:37PM
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So now we know. MPs can be arrested and their offices seached, without warrants or proper authorisation or scrutiny by anyone excpt the men in black. Innocent bystanders can now be shot dead by the men in black, who cannot be charged with unlawful killing. I'm white, middle class and with no criminal recored, but why do I feel less threatened by the activities of terrorists than by this government and their political rottweilers, the men in black - namely the polisse from New SScotland Yard?

From beketley on Wed Dec 03 04:42PM
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YOU SPINELESS LOT DESERVE ALL YOU GET.
I'll vote for any party I believe will stop ID cards. Only a moron will believe it's worth stopping small time ID theft as presently perpetrated, at the risk of the major ID theft if this goes through. Who's going to believe you when your 'DISC' HAS BEEN LEFT ON A BUS BY A CIVIL SERVANT? Count the @#$%-ups, someone.
And why, oh why do people always assume we'll always have a democracy?
Your phones are tapped; your e-mails read - now you're tagged.
Read 1984, Winston.
The Yanks won't stand for it; only our spineless electorate.
Sorry, perhaps they're just stupid.
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE KIDDING, MR HITLER?

From haddenbrereton on Wed Dec 03 04:46PM
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when are people in the country gonna wake up and smell the coffee !!
who will stand up at the crucial moment to defend the sanctity and dignity of human life ....
see Nichiren Daishonin's treatise "On establishing the peace of the Land " ( Rissho Ankoku Ron) : http://www.sgilibrary.org

From sabrown3551 on Wed Dec 03 04:46PM
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Answer; No.

From john_belsey on Wed Dec 03 04:46PM
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How is it other countries have had ID cards for the last umpteen years without any of the problems all these people talk about? How do you prove who you are in the UK? In Spain you have to show ID for any financial transaction, to vote and to get discount to museums, concerts etc. A credit card sized ID fit sin your purse; easy peasy. What's the problem? I don't feel threatened, violated or any of those things it's common sense.

From jennyspain22 on Wed Dec 03 04:54PM
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Well said natasha & slyonsly & many others. I was beginning to wonder if i was the only one to feel a country i was once so proud of has lost all its traditional values,culture & going downhill fast . As an 60+ I honestly dont recognize the country i grew up in!!!!! This is just 1 more nail in the coffin.What with,false wars killing 1000s, mass immigration with muslims savouring their own culture unchecked (hijabs, burkas, forced marriages,sharia law (Dewsberry),CRUEL HALAL MEAT (see "memorandum of understanding"5000 pakistani butcher here?!!!!!)anti christian/jewish literature,etc etc, + MPs arrested just for telling us the TRUTH,we cant demonstrate as in the1960s & 70s for fear of being branded TERRORISTS!!!!!wheres DEMOCRACY gone????.If i was younger, id EMIGRATE!!!Florence

From ruthgriffiths1 on Wed Dec 03 05:01PM
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