A Cynic's Guide To Entitlement (*cough* ID *cough*) Cards
http://www.stand.org.uk/
(From http://www.ntk.net/)
Into the final days of the government's Great ID Card Consultation - and the Home Office couldn't be more excited. Lord Falconer continues to tell everyone who'll listen that over 1500 people have responded, and the majority of them were extremely positive on the idea.
Now, given that they're proposing a massive IT project to introduce a universal identifier for all citizens, with a centralised database of personal details, kept accurate by making a new crime of withholding your current address from the government - well, we can't help but think that more people would a bit squeamish on the principle.
And maybe they were. DAN BLANCHARD described what happened when he mailed the HO saying that he didn't think ID cards were necessary. Back came the reply from the Home Office: "Thank you for your e-mail of 13th December in support of the introduction of an entitlement/identity card scheme."
Now, we're not saying that something fishy is going on here. Although, obviously, yes we are *implying* it. So to double-check the government, and
test the accuracy of the Lord Falconometer, the STAND folk have set up an easy-to-use web form for those wanting to express their discontent (mild or otherwise) with the Entitlement Card scheme. STAND'll keep count of the number of contributions (in a giant, centralised database of biometric - nah, just kidding), and then compare that to the results that come from Lord Falconer next time. We're hoping to get close to the 1500 entries already noted, perhaps even top it (that's only about 0.1 of a slashdotting after all). Because if the government can't even keep their database of an simple e-mail onsultation straight, maybe they shouldn't be trusted with a universal database after all. http://www.stand.org.uk/
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