One of the biggest city councils in England has voted unanimously to oppose the government's plans for ID cards on the grounds that they could lead to abuses of human rights. Bristol city council, which is led by the Liberal Democrats, yesterday became the ninth local authority in the country to officially oppose the plans, which will need the support of local government if they are to succeed.
If enough local authorities oppose it, then either the legislation will be dead in the water, or it will force the government to bring in amendments to compel compliance, which would be a high-risk strategy. One of the councillors said
"We'll be obliged to set up a whole bureaucracy for policing the system," he said. "It'll be work on behalf of central government that they won't pay for. The costs will be huge. We feel sat upon by government layers of regulation already. What chance do we have to speak for our citizens?"
We should note that the opposition was unanimous which certainly then includes both Labour and Conservative members as well as the majority LibDems. In fact there's a good quote from a Conservative:
Conservative councillor Bill Goulandris added: "The simple fact is that the government is not listening to reason. In banking we spend hundreds of millions of pounds improving security, and fraudsters still find a way in. Are we supposed to believe that they won't be able to do the same to the ID database?"
Quite so, and given the value of the data, I imagine that huge amounts of ingenuity will be devoted to just that end. And since the system would presume itself impregnable, that leaves many of us potentially identity-less in a society where it would have become central to be identified.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Local Government | Council votes to oppose ID cards: Filed in: ID_cards, UK, oppov
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