This government will end the culture of spying on its citizens. It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding people are regularly treated as if they have something to hide. It has to stop. So there will be no ID card scheme. No national identity register, a halt to second generation biometric passports. We won't hold your internet and email records when there is just no reason to do so. CCTV will be properly regulated, as will the DNA database, with restrictions on the storage of innocent people's DNA. Britain must not be a country where our children grow up so used to their liberty being infringed that they accept it without question. There will be no ContactPoint children's database. Schools will not take children's fingerprints without even asking their parent's consent. This will be a government that is proud when British citizens stand up against illegitimate advances of the state.The UK Home Secretary Theresa May has accordingly announced that the National Identity Card scheme will be abolished within 100 days, with the existing cards to become invalid when the current legislation is repealed in the first session of the new Parliament.
So far there appears to have been no official statement regarding the demise of information held on the associated National Identity Register, which leveraged the bit of plastic that housed an encrypted chip with biometric data (photograph and fingerprints). The BBC reports that once the cards are "illegal" the National Identity Register will be "physically destroyed" - presumably the servers will be purged and re-used, rather than bureaucrats inviting sledgehammer-wielding NoID fans into the computer centres for a bout of 'smash & trash'. (One cruel reader of this blog offered to buy Mr Clegg a crowbar and hammer.)
May stayed on topic, boasting that -
This bill is a first step of many that this government is taking to reduce the control of the state over decent, law-abiding people and hand power back to them. With swift Parliamentary approval, we aim to consign identity cards and the intrusive ID card scheme to history within 100 days.Some 'decent, law-abiding people' are of course more equal than others. The parallel card scheme for foreign nationals (characterised as 'biometric resident permits'), administered by the UK Border Agency, will continue.
Clegg has modestly characterised the reforms as part of "the biggest shakeup of our democracy since 1832". Let's see what happens once Sir Humphrey points out that compliance with EU and COE requirements restricts his autonomy and that there are sound administrative - or, more importantly, political reasons - for maintaining the plethora of databases.
