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Parent debate

• Debate:Identity Cards

Supporting evidence

• "How to WIN the Fight Against the National Identity Card and the associated National Identity Register". Friends, Family, Colleagues, Media and the Government. Retrieved 1/02/08 - "So What is the Principle Here? The principle is that you are a sovereign citizen and you do not live by ‘government permission’. A government is (or should be) the servant of the people, not its master. Privacy and freedom are yours by right and we only give governments permission to curtail these freedoms in very limited and important circumstances. It is not a proper function of government to engage in blanket surveillance of law-abiding citizens; or to instigate systems of compulsory identification; or to open a file on each citizen; or to criminalise citizens who refuse to comply."

..."The National ID card and National Identity Register is a giant leap towards authoritarian control and fundamentally alters the balance of power between citizen and state. The card itself is not the real problem. The concern is the vast National Identity Register with each citizen becoming a number on a government computer which would hold a file on each of us. Initially the file would contain very little (date of birth, current address…). But gradually (in the name of ‘preventing terrorism’ ‘stopping crime’ or ‘protecting children’) the file would contain or link to more and more personal information such as:

• • your spending habits
  • your ethnicity
  • your religion
  • your sexual preferences
  • your political leanings
  • your health records
  • your criminal records
  • your driving record and convictions.

Naturally the government currently have ‘no plans’ to add such data and maintain that they will have ‘adequate safeguards’ in place…"