There has been much said about the current proposals for the introduction of identity cards in the UK. Personally I can see the pluses and the minuses and, in a simple ‘for and against’ argument, the ‘fors’ win. However life, as you are all well aware, is not black and white (and I refuse to give it a shade or colour at all).
Deborah Orr of the Independent poses the real question, with which I agree wholeheartedly:
“…the real question the identity card issue poses is whether being accountable to family, friends and community is actually at all similar to being held accountable to a vast data-entry-and-retrieval system, and … are willing to put up with it.”
The world (for we are a global ‘nation’ of sorts now, like it or not) has moved on. I have friends across the globe, the majority of which I have never and will never meet. I know more about someone in New York that I’ve never seen in the flesh than I do about the couple across the street from me who I say hi to every other day.
There are plenty of other concerns surrounding the introduction of ID cards, and you have to wonder if the terrorist attack on September 11th possibly upset government plans to introduce this scheme last year. While it is easy to get caught up in all manner of conspiracy ‘big brother’ theories, it does seem a trifle odd that this issue has come up again so soon (10 months) after being rejected out of hand.
ID cards will become a reality. When is the question.