why in this age of evil people should it be against human rights to have full id cards .seems facical?

Answer 1

ID cards will have little value preventing terrorism.Prevention of these crimes are just the govts method of selling something to the public ,using the publics own fears against them.

The ID cards are the culmination of blairs orwellian utopia.Our rights have been "sliced like the salami"(rakosi) for the last 10 years.
We must realise that our lives will not be our own.already we are told what we can and cant say,cameras everywhere,solicitors and accountants forced to spy on us.
Its all heading in one direction,even our rights to protest against this have been eroded and our protests will all be on camera.

We must stop this now.Some of the answerers above who support the cards ,who swallow the state spiel are so foolish not to recognise where this is heading.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.


I would sooner take my chances with crime and terror than be a zombie of the state!

Answer 2

Evil people have always been around. ID cards won't changed that. Just imagine if it is the evil people who are in charge of those ID cards. Don't say it will never happen Hilter in Europe was only 61 years ago - Just think how many more Jewish people may have been slaughtered in the gas chambers if he had a data base that contained the info stored on the proposed ID cards.

I have a passport, drivers licence, NHS card, professional qualifications and 3 national seaman's identity cards already. All of which I am required to carry around with me during the coarse of my work and travels. A national ID card would not stop me or any one else from committing an act of terrorism if that was that kind of person you / I / they are.

Evil people do evil things and will find a way to do it no matter what controls the government try to place on the population as a whole. Dealing with the route cause of the terrorists hostility is the only solution to the problem of terrorism. Unemployment, poverty, hunger, inequality, feelings of hoplesness and disenfrachisement from society as a whole are the breeding ground of hostility and resentment. Resolving these issues would have a greater effect on reducing the threat of terrorism than any ID card ever will.

For example Northern Ireland was only ever going to be solved once the British government sat down to negotiate with "the terrrorists". Eventually you have to talk to stop the killing, it's as simple as that.

Answer 3

Because privacy is a basic human right. ID cards represent a trade off between personal privacy and national security. To have ID cards forced upon a nation by the elected government would be a breach of human rights. If, however, the government had a referendum on it rather than just legislating, people would have the opportunity to choose. Would you want all your details (criminal, financial, personal, medical, residential and employment) all on one data base? What would happen is someone hacked into the data base and shut your life down?
How would ID cards stop terrorists blowing themselves up? Generally speaking terrorists only blow themselves up once, an ID card cannot tell you if someone is likely to blow themselves up nor can you charge someone with thought crime (yet) So where would ID cards work against terrorism?

Answer 4

The more your wise and benevolent government knows about you, the easier it will be for the government to run efficiently, without disruptions. Good citizens, of course, would never be interested in doing anything that would damage efficient government. As they say, "I have nothing to hide."

The problem is, what makes the government wise? The first task of a government is to survive. The second is to maintain order and efficiency. Somewhere down the list is the common good of the people, whatever that may be. But a government can't do that if it doesn't exist or isn't effective. So the good of the people will always lose out to government self-preservation and efficiency.

Suppose the government realizes that reading a certain type of literature gives people disruptive ideas, or just makes them unhappy. It doesn't want to restrict their freedom of thought but it doesn't want trouble down the road. So it monitors their purchases, rentals and library borrowings for later potential action. Or the government determines that certain travel patterns or purchasing patterns are consistent with potential terrorism, or maybe just dissatisfaction. There may be many innocuous exceptions but statistically the pattern suggests watching. A fully functioning ID program would combine all your data: health, wealth, work, credit, lifestyle, religion, memberships, hobbies, anything that might distinguish you from other people. No one activity or status would be peculiar, but in combination, they might indicate a demographical anomaly. The system would not be looking for "bad guys", just potential disruptions to an orderly and efficient government. There aren't enough people with the time or dedication to do this job, so the monitoring and analysis would have to be automated. When anomaly reports are generated, there won't be enough people with the time or dedication to question or check every one for validity. So some people will be flagged for meaningless statistical abnormalities. Again, there would be too much data for correction. The system would be intended to track EVERYTHING about EVERYONE. With enough "flags", the tipping point would eventually be reached and the government would act, mindlessly, in the name of efficiency, whenever the program told it to. Old SciFi movies tell us we don't like robots running our lives because they have no insight or compassion. But effectively, that's what we'd be building.

No, we're nowhere near there yet, but that is the obvious end of the effort. (Checking 99 out of every 100 people for terrorist sympathies leaves 1% of the population unchecked.) There are just too many people to leave it to people to manage our security. Of course, "security" is a matter of opinion. The strongest "security" does not make allowances for "good guys", and is always looking for ways to minimize the chance of being overwhelmed by anticipating potential problems. So it becomes the security of the system itself, not yours.

I'm overdramatizing the implications, surely, but when exactly do the safeties kick in? The people won't stand for it? They will as long as it isn't their ox that's gored. And by the time it is, they might not have the option to protest. Private gun ownership is a tolerated nuisance, so far. Tax disputes can be argued out in court, so far. Your medical records are safe from the prying eyes of potential employers or insurers, so far (I think). You can express your personal opinions in public, as you dare, so far. Will that last when you can no longer remain anonymous? Everyone has innocent "secrets" that would be too hard to "explain". If ALL your identification is kept on a conveniently accessible card, under the control of a government too big to manage itself, easily linked to every kind of record that describes your life, with all anonymous options closed off, you could easily find yourself lumped in the "evil" category without even trying, unless you are willing to adopt a Stepford life and become a closely defined model citizen, 24/7.

Answer 5

I'm not sure I fully understand your question, are you in favour of id cards? I think there is nothing against human rights about id cards, just as there is nothing against human rights in requiring passports for air travel. Genuine people with nothing to hide should surely find nothing to impinge their rights about an id card.

Answer 6

Agree. Never understood the civil liberties lobby. What loss of civil liberties? So someone can look on your card and know your name, ID number, and address. So bloody what. Look at the complete life history you have to give the Bank to get a loan, and they are not even the government, just a private company. I have never had a satisfactory answer from the Liberal Lefties as to what is wrong with ID cards. If it stops just one terrorist planting a bomb that kills one person, that will be worth it.

Answer 7

The only people who claim ID cards are against human rights are those evil people with something to hide. To law abiding people there should be no problem.

Answer 8

"Age of evil"? Wow you just made a boring day at work into a boring day at work with idiotic comments on board. Thanks.