WRITTEN ON May 25th, 2005 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Identity

What will constitute a good ID system debate?

Not the Punch & Judy of political bluster. So let’s ignore
- Tory tactical fence sitting
- Lib Dems moaning about Tory fence sitting
- Labour moaning about Tories being soft on crime
- PM using ID Cards as test of political macho
- and any comment on the subject by Peter Hain.

Let’s filter all that out from the quest for reasoned enlightment. This quest has two promising strands:

1. The “pros” (who see a new public ID system as necessary, modern and responsible) accept that an ID system that does not command public confidence (or simply pisses many people off) will be counterproductive.

2. The “antis” (who want good online services, including public services but resent an ill-thought-out and intrusive new mechanism of control) accept that our servants in government are entrusted with certain responsibilities and will get a kicking if they don’t take measures that will be effective against crimes dependent on impersonation.

You can start to list the things that piss people off: cost (still rising, and it hasnt started yet); the hassle of having to register and undergo annoying procedures; compulsion; flip flopping about the reason (terrorism/immigration…today the reason is identity theft, but if that were true there’s no need to make the card compulsory); failure to engage in real debate; sinister vibe that spooky people whose pensions we’ll have to pay will eventually size us up and profile us and slice and dice us according to arbitrary rules that will suddenly affect our lives (ability to travel, credit rating).

And you can start to list unpalatable realities about the role of government. Something must be done about Climbie /Huntley/Richard Reid (shoe bomber). Whatever our immigration policy is, is should work. Ditto welfare, taxation etc.

If we progress along those lines there’s room for good robust debate. To get the best out of a debate you have to be ready to change your mind.

Underneath it all though, we don’t really know whether we’re fighting for our lives in a war against terror, do we? And we still don’t really know whether “personalised services” are what people really want from modern government, or whether they’ll just really piss people off.