ID Cards Are EU Policy (So There's No Escape)

Vernon Coleman





Britons are going to have to carry ID cards if we remain in the EU. It is EU policy. The Italian Government, for example, has stated that ID cards will strengthen `the feeling of unity within the EU'. (We will, presumably, all have matching EU ID cards in the same way that we now have all matching EU passports.)

The EU is demanding `harmonised solutions' on biometric identification and data. In practical terms this means that the bureaucrats in Brussels are demanding an EU wide population register and ID cards. It is demanding national ID cards which will be used to store health, school and benefit records. Each card will carry either the fingerprints of the owner or an iris scan and a European identity register will be set up. There will be biometric readers in doctors' surgeries and in hospitals. (It will be impossible to get treatment without your card being scanned.) Oddly enough, the Labour Party suddenly became keen on ID cards at the same time as the bureaucrats in Brussels said that they had to be issued. (As is often the case English politicians are reluctant to admit that ideas like this come from Brussels. There are two reasons for their reluctance: first, they know that the public will be even more unwilling to accept the proposal and second they don't like to admit just how little power they have.)

To begin with individual countries arranged to satisfy the EU's requirements in their own ways.

Back in 1994, when it was announced that England would be introducing new pictorial driving licences from July 1996 it was denied that that this was an infringement of personal liberty. The Government did, however, admit that it was planning to include one or two other bits of information on the driving licences. When pressed for details the Government admitted that driving licences would contain a computer chip which would contain: details of the driver's next of kin, address, occupation, place of employment, all previous driving details (including court appearances), insurance details, blood group, fingerprints, medical details, retinal pattern, DNA profile and national insurance number. All this information will, of course, be available to Government employees and to anyone else equipped with the requisite scanner and, of course, to anyone prepared to pay for it. In addition, it was acknowledged that the photographs on driving licences will be readable by surveillance cameras installed to track the movements of cars and their occupants around England. ID cards are heaven sent for a fascist organisation like the EU. They will enable the EU to spy on us and to make money. Your personal financial and medical records will be readily available to all Government employees. Your tax inspector will know what illnesses you have had and the receptionist at your local medical centre will know how much you earn and how much tax you pay. Every few years we will all have to line up at identity registration centres to be fingerprinted or to have our eyeballs scanned. We will have to fingerprinted again if we want to buy a house or register with a doctor. (Is there is any evidence that the eyeball scans they are planning to use are safe and won't make us blind?) Our movements are already tracked by cameras in the streets and on the roads. (Cameras which are allegedly there to prevent crime but which have yet to be shown to have prevented any crimes at all.) We will soon have `black boxes' in our cars which will enable the EU to track our journeys mile by mile (in case our progress is missed by the cameras), and many Government employees are being fitted with hidden microphones disguised as name badges to record our conversations.

It is clear, in retrospect, that the driving licence was the precursor of the ID card which the Labour Government is now determined to force us to carry. This was, remember, 1994 - some years before September 11th 2001. There was no mention of the need to introduce ID cards to combat terrorism. Nor indeed, were these early ID cards promoted as (as Blair did in May 2005) as a method of combatting identity theft.

It is important to remember that ID cards (similar to those which will be introduced throughout Europe) were introduced in Germany under Hitler (and had to be available at all times for inspection by the police). And ID cards were introduced in the USSR under Stalin. They were required for internal travel.

The new ID cards proposed by Blair and the EU are also similar to, but more intrusive than, the identity cards which were utilised in South Africa some years ago. The South African identity cards stated the name of the bearer and where he came from. If the police stopped anyone he had to show his identity card. If he was in an area prohibited to him he could be arrested. If he didn't have his card he could be arrested. If arrested he would be taken to a police station and interrogated and perhaps imprisoned. The people who suffered most from these laws were quiet, decent, law abiding folk who were trying to go about their normal daily business. Those who were not quiet, decent and law abiding rarely got stopped by the police. They moved around quietly, keeping a good look out and making a quick getaway if spotted. The police, largely being bullies and cowards, much preferred to harass normal, law abiding citizens rather than chase the genuine bad guys.

If the EU and Blair have their way we will all have to carry our ID cards at all times. If stopped and asked for identification we must show our cards. We will be arrested if we dare go out without our cards. ID cards will be used to enable the authorities to find, imprison and exterminate those who cause too much trouble (such as writing books like this one).

And, remember, our cards will contain far, far more information than the cards which were used in South Africa or Nazi Germany. The KGB and the Stasi would have loved ID cards like these. The information on our compulsory cards will be passed to MI5 and MI6.

There will, in future, be many new offences relating to ID cards. It will, for example, be a criminal offence to tell the authorities if your card (which you will have paid for) has been damaged or does not work properly. It will be a criminal offence to fail to tell the authorities of any change in your personal circumstances. Remember, there has never been any serious public debate about this fascist surveillance system which is supported only by fascist bureaucrats and by businesses which will make billions out of supplying the cards and out of the information they will be able to extract from them.

But I don 't believe anyone seriously believes that ID cards will stop crime or terrorism. (Anyone in a position of authority who genuinely believes that, should be relieved of his or her post immediately, led away quietly and placed in a padded room where they can sit quietly, avoiding bright lights and noises.) Spain has ID cards but these did not prevent the Madrid bombings. The September 11, 2001 hijackers all travelled on legitimate papers. And the introduction of ID cards will most certainly not improve the security of individual citizens in any way. The more people who have access to your personal information, the greater the risks of you being a victim of identity theft. The actions of the EU and the Government will positively encourage identity theft. The incidence of identity theft has already increased dramatically as the amount of information demanded from individuals by the authorities has increased. Every time personal information is put into the public domain the security of the individual diminishes. ID cards will make life worse - and infinitely more dangerous - for all of us.

There is no doubt that the distribution of ID cards will dramatically increase the incidence of identity theft. What will happen when people lose their ID cards? What happens when they are stolen? How do you go about getting a new one when you move house or change your name or job? The EU says that we will need to produce our ID cards when opening bank accounts. But most new bank accounts are opened over the Internet. Does this mean that we are expected to entrust our ID cards to the mail?

The extent of the risk to our personal security is perhaps best exemplified by the rise in personal identity theft which has taken place recently. Identity theft is currently estimated to cost American consumers more than $50 billion a year and it is a problem which is rapidly spreading to Europe.

There are, without doubt, two simple reasons for this.

First, a vast amount of personal, confidential information is now floating around in banks and public offices. (The introduction of ID cards will simply increase this phenomenon.)

Second, the people with whom we are forced to share our private and confidential information do not seem to regard it, once they've got it, as private or confidential. They certainly don't seem to take a great deal of care with it. The FT reported in autumn 2004 that fewer than a quarter of computers disposed of by companies have been properly cleansed of their data. Of 350 leading companies interviewed, 75% had recently sold or given away unwanted computers but only 23% had wiped the memories sufficiently to make the data on them unrecoverable. The companies who were interviewed included leading financial organisations that hold sensitive customer information and have a legal requirement to ensure that it remains confidential.

The Bank of America is reported to have `lost' computer tapes containing the personal tapes of 1.2 million American Government employees. A data collection company called ChoicePoint revealed that criminals had gained access to the social security numbers, addresses and other personal data of around 1450,000 people. A fraud ring had infiltrated the company (which said it maintained strict security standards). One of ChoicePoint's rivals then followed suit, revealing that `unauthorised users' had compromised the identities of 310,000 of its customers. A shoe retailer admitted that its stores' credit card data had been breached. The US Secret Service said that at least 100,000 valuable numbers had been accessed. Later it turned out that the number of credit card holders whose security had been breached was, in fact, 1.4 million.

Banks and insurance companies and government bodies constantly demand and accumulate personal information. It only needs one crook working in a bank or Government office to make thousands of people vulnerable to identity theft. Can the big banks really assure us that they never have disgruntled or greedy employees?

The only people who will benefit from ID cards will be those running large corporations which can buy our personal information from the Government and use it to target us more accurately, (did the Government forget to mention that the private and confidential information on ID cards will be sold to multinational corporations for commercial purposes?) and those running the Government who will have more power over us. There is a finite amount of power in the world: as they get more power so we get less.


Taken from The Truth They Won't Tell You (And Don't Want You To Know) About The EU by Vernon Coleman

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Copyright Vernon Coleman January 2007 Home