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Monday, 09 November, 2009 
We are all familiar with British traits. We’re the only European nation which enforces EU regulations. We queue for buses and cash machines. We drink a lot of tea. We value our freedom to do and say as we wish, within the laws we agree. I’ve been asked a few times recently what my views are on ID cards. It’s an important subject and I often hear people say “I wouldn’t mind having one. What harm could having a piece of plastic in your wallet possibly cause?” Here are my thoughts….. A good friend of mine was going on holiday through Leeds Bradford Airport with his wife and baby daughter. Martyn doesn’t look like much of a threat, nor his lovely wife or 6 month old daughter. On arrival at the security gate, the UK Border Agency official made him empty the baby’s bag so he could take a look through. Martyn lined up the 4 small beakers of flavoured sterilised water. Nothing too unusual in that. “No, No, Yes, Yes,” said the official in a very self important way pointing at each small bottle in turn. “What will my baby drink on the flight if we have to throw these two away?” asked Martyn. “Not my problem” said the official. “It will be if my baby ends up dehydrated in hospital,” replied Martyn. For this my friend ended up with all of the family belongings being tested on a drug scanner, presumably as punishment for daring to question this official’s judgement. Naturally the scanner found nothing. At this point my friend rightly expressed his dissatisfaction with the way he, his wife and baby had been treated. It turns out that my friend had read the latest rules about what can be taken on a plane, but the official had not. Could Martyn challenge the decision? No. Could he escalate the issue to this man’s superior? No, this chap was the supervisor. My friend had to simply give in, if the family were to take the flight. Safety mindedness is important. But small mindedness is a growing British disease. It doesn’t seem to matter where we are, we see this more and more: “I have a uniform and a clipboard and I’m not afraid to use it”. Whether we’re on the motorway watching those Highway Agency people needlessly cone off two lanes because there’s a ‘Health and Safety’ issue with a dropped hairbrush on the outside lane, or a Civil Enforcement Officer (traffic warden) telling a mother, who’s run back to the car with her child and heavy bag, that “I’ve started issuing the ticket and I cannot stop, and you are 3 minutes over the limit.” So why am I going on about this? Am I not meant to be telling you if I’m for or against ID cards? Well, I’m against and here’s why… The issue is only in part the card and the associated database. Having worked 12 years in an IT firm I can tell you this: No database is really secure. Someone always has access and someone can always have an agenda to take a copy of your personal data. Anyone who tells you a national ID card will help prevent identity theft is living in cloud cuckoo land. Another database with your details on means another opportunity for your data to be accessed by more people. “Don’t the companies responsible have security safeguards?” I hear you ask. Well, yes, but we humans are always the weak link. Most UK based IT firms also use foreign software developers as they are cheaper. Answer me this – how much faith should I have that people working half way around the world are security vetted to the same standard as people here? What if all the UK IT firm has is a declaration that the foreign software developers promise not to do anything they shouldn’t, as is so often the case? How confident do I feel? Not in the slightest bit confident. This is one reason I’ll consider opting out of having my records on the NHS central database when the time comes. I don’t want my medical records being left on a disk on a train somewhere. And this is before we get to the other part of the argument. If we were all to have ID cards, how long would it be before there was justification to make it illegal to not carry it with you? Of course this would have to be enforced and the police are quite busy enough. Perhaps we would have some ‘Identity Enforcement Officers’ randomly stopping us to make sure we can prove our identity? Personally, I do not want to be held up by someone with a high visibility jacket, a clipboard, a sense of self righteousness and a penchant for pedantry, asking me to prove who I am. I know who I am, I’m a British citizen, leave me alone unless you have very good reason to stop me. If we want to, most of us have no problem proving who we are without another plastic card. It’s absolutely right that we should be checked in and out of the country so we know who is residing here and yes, I’m sure we have a huge number of people living here that we have no idea about. But that doesn’t mean that British citizens should be made to prove their right to be here because we’ve failed to keep check on those with no right to be here. What would we do anyway? Arrest everyone who can’t immediately prove who they are? Ask these unidentified people to turn up to the nearest police station the next day to prove who they are? I’m sure people with no right to live here may decide not to bother presenting themselves to the police station the next day. I hope we won’t end up with a national ID card scheme. It would achieve very little, cost a lot and would be a freedom we’d give away that we’d never get back. On a lighter note I’d like to thank you very much for reading my articles over the year and wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Al-Hijira and Happy New Year. All the best Matthew Lobley Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor
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