Saturday, March 04, 2006

Countdown to Monday

How to write to a Peer about ID cards

After a welcome 24 hous completely offline, here's a link for British readers. The House of Lords will be reviewing the new ID card proposals on Monday and the above will help you let them know your feelings. Do it now.

The mood of the country seems to be increasingly wary of surveillance plans. Speaking on TV on Thursday, former Tory MP Michael Portillo noted an interesting point as his story of the week. In a recent case where police had asked for public help to identify a criminal, they asked around 4000 people to come forward for elimination. Normally, public-spirited response would have produced a large percentage of co-operative citizens - in this case however, only around 100 people came forward. The reason? It seems that anyone doing so would be given a DNA swab and filed permanently on the police database.

Maybe this is an example of how ID card legislation will, instead of helping fight crime, actually be an obstacle to law enforcement.

Later.

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