Blunkett's Bad Idea

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110142750390883913,00.html>

The Wall Street Journal


 November 26, 2004

 REVIEW & OUTLOOK


Blunkett's Bad Idea
November 26, 2004

Amidst Tuesday's pomp and pageantry that was the State Opening of the
British parliament, the biggest smile during the Queen's speech probably
belonged to Home Secretary David Blunkett. For, in spite of cabinet
opposition, he managed to get his pet project -- a national identification
card -- put atop the government's legislative agenda.

Aside from extolling the worth of ID cards in the war on terror, Mr.
Blunkett has been lauding their usefulness in fighting organized crime,
combating welfare abuse, and curbing illegal immigration. In fact, save
improving the performance of the nation's sports teams, it almost seems for
Mr. Blunkett that there's no problem these magical cards can't solve.

If an argument could be made that ID cards would be a valuable aid against
terrorism, fine. But they're not. An ID card system, to cite but one case,
didn't prevent the Madrid massacre. So Mr. Blunkett touts other benefits,
like reducing benefit fraud. But at a projected cost of #3.1 ($5.8)
billion, that'll have to be a lot of fraud.

The government's real response to civil libertarians is: "If you've got
nothing to hide, why oppose?" That's not the point. A state exists for the
people and is accountable to the people. Not vice-versa. At least not in
free and democratic countries. Britain is, or was, freer than its
Continental neighbors precisely because the government wasn't as intrusive
in peoples' lives.

To so fundamentally alter the relationship between citizen and state, as
Mr. Blunkett proposes, a compelling case needs to be made. He hasn't.


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'