At first it looked like a classic 'seen the error of my ways' story: Blunkett warns over ‘Big Brother’ Britain - UK Politics, UK - The Independent because : "He will come out against the Government’s controversial plan to set up a database holding details of telephone calls and emails and its proposal to allow public bodies to share personal data with each other."
But then, hold the celebration in heaven, or at least in No2ID, Liberty, etc. because:
"Instead, holding a passport would become compulsory for all British people, who could choose to “opt in” to the ID card scheme if they wished."
So no real change; passport would be the new ID card, and presumably the NIR would still be the 'one ring to bind them all' and still a kind of poll tax: unless we could all have our papers free of charge; but that ain't gonna happen either.
The thing we could celebrate is that Blunkett is at least signalling that data sharing could go too far and that some of the government's current proposals are going too far for civil liberties.
"Mr Blunkett will urge the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, to water down provisions in the Coroners and Justice Bill on data sharing between public bodies. He will warn: “It is not simply whether the intentions are benign, undoubtedly they are, but whether they are likely to be misused and above all what value their use may have.” He “remains to be convinced” about plans of the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, for a giant central database to store records of phone calls, text messages and the websites people access. "
So a near-repentance, anyway. Nice try but no cuddly elephant.
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