I’m speechless at this latest episode of incompetence by a Government department.
As others have remarked elsewhere, given what has happened today, is there any reason why we should trust the Government with our data under the proposed ID cards scheme?
I recognise that argument, but I’ve always been rather cautious of it. When arguing against ID cards, I prefer not to base my opposition on Government competence (or otherwise). That, to me, would be a false argument. As if to say that if only the Government could be trusted not to lose our data, then it would be OK to have ID cards. My opposition to ID cards is based on civil liberties grounds, and as such, will not change even if there were a cast-iron guarantee that our details would be secure.
Having said that, today’s news can only make the public more sceptical of the whole ID cards project. If so, that can only be a good thing. If ID cards are scrapped because of public scepticism over Government competence, I for one will not quarrel with that. I suppose, in the end, it matters not how the victory is won.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
[...] lots of people are saying, it’s bad. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. It gives rise to three [...]
November 21st, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I prefer not to base my opposition on Government competence (or otherwise). That, to me, would be a false argument. ~ Bel
It would be a damn good reason not to let Whitehall manage such a data, though.
November 21st, 2007 at 2:04 pm
True that, Tyger. Ir was also interesting to hear Darling’s argument in the Commons yesterday about why, despite this, ID cards would not be susceptible to this kind of fraud.
November 23rd, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Don’t be speechless, Bel - there’s more coming.