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Threat to privacy
January 20, 2006 12:00 AM
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The Islington Tribune
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The Islington Tribune
The government cites a confused array of objectives in an attempt to force its costly and unnecessary proposal for identity cards upon us. One is about prevention of terrorism, yet compulsory ID cards in Spain did not prevent 191 people being killed by terrorist bombs there on March 11th 2004.
A House of Lords report on the ID card scheme has pointed out that it entails storage on a single database of more personal information "than has ever been considered necessary or attempted previously in the United Kingdom or in any other Western country". The potential risks to our individual privacy are enormous.
Latest estimates say ID cards could cost taxpayers the staggering figure of £40 billion. We would each have to fork out [around £80] if they become obligatory as the government intends.
Liberal Democrats believe that instead of coming up with ever more "Big Brother" threats to civil liberties, Tony Blair should invest our money in thousands of extra police officers equipped with the technology they really need to track down criminals and terrorists.
Readers can support our petition calling on the prime minister to scrap plans for ID cards and spend the money more sensibly by going to www.libdems.org.uk/noidcards
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