Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Day 101 in the Big Brother house...

The new ID system bill is due to be re-introduced today, in line with the last post. The Guardian report reads a bit like a press release at times ("the National Identity Register will be created ... to store details held on the cards, so they can be securely cross-checked." - securely? how can they be sure?), but has some more information including the fact that the results of the 10,000 strong volunteer trial will be published too - one wonders if that includes the withdrawn Cornish trial as well.

That's also 10 times as many people as the survey probably quoted by HO Under-Secretary Andy Burnham the other day, although he merely claims that support is still at 80% in "latest polls". Of course by his figures, that's still 1 in 5 that are against it.

The survey itself is pretty interesting reading, and makes you wonder how much of a dent campaigns such as NO2ID are making. Although, judging by the blatantly submissive responses (63% say that "police should have the power to make anyone produce their ID"), it's perhaps even more of an uphill battle than hoped. The killer is that only 10% would be willing to pay between 40 and 100 quid to get one of these Magic Cards. Considering that the Guardian article reports that "the cost of a passport will more than double to over £80 when new cards are introduced".. well, do the maths.

An update later probably, once more details are out. Time to start getting those letters to MPs and supporting NO2ID in the meantime.

No comments: