BBC story w/more details on UK mandatory ID, biometrics proposals

Xeni Jardin xeni at xeni.net
Sun Sep 23 22:46:54 PDT 2001


"The home secretary indicated on BBC One's On the Record programme that
his personal view was that a voluntary scheme would be pointless. "

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Xeni Jardin
xeni at xeni.net | www.xeni.net | YIM: xeni_jardin
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Monday, 24 September, 2001, 04:55 GMT 05:55 UK
ID cards 'high priority' for government

The UK government is considering making identity cards compulsory as part
of a crackdown on terrorism.
But Home Secretary David Blunkett says he will not be rushed into making a
"snap announcement" on cards or any other anti-terror measures.

He said: "I'm giving it a fairly high priority in terms of the discussions
and the consideration behind the scenes.

"There are much broader issues about entitlement and citizenship and not
merely security in terms of some form of identity card which we are
looking at very seriously indeed."

He also maintained that improvements in electronic thumb or fingerprint
technology or even "iris-prints" meant the threat of forgery would not
make the system redundant. <...>





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