Short excerpts from Lords Hansard “Identity Cards Billâ€
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“I fear that the drive to introduce ID cards has more to do with authoritarianism than with the prevention of terrorism. It follows inroads into the right to trial by jury; the attack on habeas corpus; the imposition of control orders and house arrest without reasons being given, and we now understand that the making of such orders is to be kept secret from the general public; undermining free speech by measures such as the incitement to religious hatred, the Bill for which is now before us; reversal of the presumption of innocence in some cases; the welter of new criminal offences over the past decade, and the reduction of the role of Parliament through ill-thought-out legislation rushed through the House of Commons by means of restrictive guillotines. We have done without ID cards and a national register for hundreds of years, and have dealt with considerable previous terrorist threats without them, and we can do so now. We are being told that ID cards will not be made compulsory for the present, but that is the clear intention in the medium or long term, and if the Home Secretary is to be believed, they are to be tied in with a European Union ID card. I quote now from the Home Secretary’s speech to the EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers made on 24 February in Brussels, as reported in the Daily Telegraph: ”An effective identity card system would make it easier for the Government to drop border controls with the rest of Europe’, Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said in Brussels yesterday . . . ‘ . ‘The introduction of ID cards could change the situation 15 . . . 20 years down the line’”. So it is clear that the ID card system has a connection with the European Union. In fact, it seems that we are on course for an EU ID card, which no doubt would have to be carried at all times. Presumably, all the information about British people contained on those cards would be made available to public and perhaps private bodies in all the EU countries. That ties in with the view of the EU police chiefs task force, which agreed in October 2001 that the EU should speed up the universal adoption of ID cards. I should like to know whether that is proceeding. It seems evident that the Bill is a step on the road to a compulsory EU ID card, and not confined to the UK more »:
