Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary unknown to his own receptionist, made the headlines yesterday by announcing that it will not be compulsory for British nationals to carry identity cards and dropping a proposal for trials at airports. Johnson announced that:
“Holding an identity card should be a personal choice for British citizens — just as it is now to obtain a passport. Accordingly, I want the introduction of identity cards for all British citizens to be voluntary and I have therefore decided that identity cards issued to airside workers should also be voluntary.”
On the face of it, this looks good news and is certainly a PR reverse for the Government. However, as the Times points out:
The Government is to press ahead with creating a national identity register that, from 2011-12, will include the details of everyone who applies for a passport.
Legislation to be debated next week will make it an offence punishable by a fine of up to £1,000 not to inform the Government of a name or change of address as it appears on the register.
Jettisoning the requirement for ID cards to be carried, therefore, is essentially cosmetic. The Government will still be harvesting the personal details of virtually every UK national, in an exercise supported by the full weight of the criminal law.
Alan Johnson’s announcement is simply a way of camouflaging the progress of the surveillance state. It is reminiscent of the classic (and prescient) Yes Minister episode in which Jim and Humphrey are agonising over how to make the new pan-European ID card more palatable to the electorate. Bernard helpfully suggests:
“You might get away with calling it the Euroclub Express.”
I remember that episode. Actually a good lot of the Yes, Minister episodes were frighteningly prescient.