Re: Lords pass ID cards bill: Welcome to Orwellian Brave New Britain

On 31 Mar 2006 08:24:45 GMT, fburton@xxxxxxx (Francis Burton) wrote:

In article <slrne2om52.j0t.dan1701usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Dan Holdsworth <dan1701usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So, say the project gets up and running. Identity theft is a very big
business, and if you have a repository of a lot of identity data all
sitting in one place then you are absolutely bound to attract the
attention of criminals, many of whom are very technically savvy these
days.

Has the govt explained to us why a central database is needed at all?

No. The reason why not is that this would be the quickest way to
alienate the entire population. If they told the truth, they would
have to say something like this:

We believe the British nation through the failures of past governments
to be fundamentally dishonest, fraudulent, criminal, and
untrustworthy. No citizen can be trusted to abide by the rules. We
therefore aim to enforce those rules by means of the closest possible
surveillance of all citizens and their movements. Initially, we intend
to cover only activities outside the domestic dwelling, but there will
be provisions later on to include all activity, whether within the
home, or outside it.

How can we do this? The answer lies in the power of information
technology. Over the past 20 years IT has made enormous strides. One,
single personal computer contains far more computing power than a
mainframe of the 1950s. We intend to harness that power in order to
enforce the rules.

Since most rule-breaking activities can be tracked by means of
computer technology, that is exactly what we intend shall happen.
Wherever it is possible to use technology to check on a person's
previous, ongoing, or presumed future actions, those checks will be
made.

However, although we may not know what further advances in technology
may yet bring, what we can be sure of is that we must know who and
where every citizen of this country is at all times and this can only
be achieved by a compulsory ID card that hooks into a new database.

While we may currently be saying that the card will not be compulsory
to carry, we can change this at any time in the future by means of a
simple vote in parliament, which the government is likely to win. If
we then argue that compulsion is necessary as an essential requirement
in the war on terror, for example, this can be considered a minor
issue and a mere formality at present.

As we create the National Identity Register (NIR), which is a computer
database to be set up and maintained by government-approved
contractors, the key points which describe every citizen's identity
will be recorded. In fact, we aim to have at least 50 items of
personal data held on each and every citizen in the country. Failure
to maintain that data and keep it up to date will render a citizen
liable to a severe fine.

Once we have a sizable number of the population assimilated in this
manner and we have issued an Order in Parliament to effect the
compulsory carrying of the card and showing it on demand to any
authorised person, whether working for or on behalf of the government,
the next stages will become possible. Recording transactions of all
kinds will be a trivial exercise as it will be a purely electronic,
automated process. The ID card can be required to be produced at all
retail or service points, as is currently done by and large with
credit, debit or store cards, and the transaction will be immediately
recorded in the citizen's record on the NIR.

If cash payment methods are slowly withdrawn over several years and
electronic payment becomes first the norm, and then mandatory, with no
cash in circulation or difficult to obtain, all commercial interaction
by the citizen will be recordable, whether buying goods and services
online or at actual retail outlets or service points. In addition,use
of the card can be made mandatory for gaining access to public
libraries and buildings, hospitals, places of worship, and any other
place deemed necessary to include.

As this data record for each citizen can be scanned by powerful
software programs using artificial intelligence, fuzzy matching,
probability/trend calculation, and other methods, it will be a simple
exercise to pinpoint all kinds of suspicious behaviour, such as:

- Purchase of certain household or agricultural chemicals

- Purchase of tools and equipment

- Purchase of accommodation, whether renting, buying, or hotel

- Purchase and disposal of vehicles, guns, knives, and any other item

- Purchase of luggage of any kind

- Purchase of alcohol when citizen is underage

- Purchase of condoms or any other contraception when citizen is
underage

- Purchase of morning-after pill when citizen is underage

- Purchase of cigarettes within an area covered by a smoking ban

- Purchase of domestic heating oil or paraffin liable to be used
illegally, such as for fuelling vehicles for non-agricultural use

- Purchase of sexual content

- Purchase of political content

- Purchase of certain newspapers, journals and books

- Purchase of membership to any organisation, club, or association

- Purchase of unusual substances, ingredients, recipes or instructions

- Purchase while disqualified of vehicle fuel, components, accessories

-Travel outside the area unless to or from employment

- Excessive travel for unexplained reasons

- Curtailing travel before allotted destination

- Failure to return from destination as per return ticket allocation

This partial list only covers some of the important areas we shall be
including, however further refinements to the system may use silent
Radio Frequency Identification technology, possibly built into the
card from the outset, to:

- Detect any person entering or frequenty being within the confines of
a meeting hall, place of religious worship, cinema, entertainments
centre, theatre, or any other similar venue

- Detect unjustified loitering inside or outside schools, or in parks,
or on beaches, or in any other area designated as potentially
suspicious, such as protesters congregating within sight of a military
base or in other proscribed areas such as Whitehall

- Detect presence of citizens in certain localities within towns,
cities, airports, railway hubs, and major shopping centres

The above can be achieved through remote scanning by means of a system
of scanning points similar to blanket coverage by CCTV camera, and by
mobile scanning points carried by Community Support Officers or other
authorised officials or staff. All details will be stored in the
citizen's record on the NIR, which will be used to continually refine
the model of behavioural patterns for that citizen. Any scanning point
which fails to detect a the presence of a card where one is assumed
will immediately and automatically alert the security services.
Visitors will be issued with temporary ID cards free of charge.

In due course we will be able to clamp down on nearly all criminal
behaviour and punish this electronically by levying suitable fines,
which will be automatically deducted the next time the card is used
for any purpose. In conjunction with automatic number plate
recognition, CCTV, and other technology, such as DNA profiling, we
will increase our ability to control and guide the population to such
an extent that police forces will be less and less necessary. Even
most prisons may not be required in the long term, as the minor
antisocial behaviour that leads to criminal activity would be
trackable, detected early and removed. Over time, the enormous costs
of criminal activity will be greatly reduced, allowing the government
to put more money into caring for the elderly, helping youngsters to
find work, or reducing the council tax.

If citizens default on fines they may be liable to tagging, house
detention, or electronic endorsements added to the ID card to ensure
that they comply with the legal process we deem necessary to
counteract any opposition. Card endorsements will be carried out
electronically and will restrict the citizen's use of the card for a
designated period of time. For example, travel to work via public
transport might be curtailed, thus necessitating the citizen to use
alternative, legal methods of travel or risk losing his or her
employment, which in itself would be tantamount to self-induced
constructive dismissal. No unemployment or other benefit would be
payable under such conditions.

We do not see a requirement for courts, magistrates, judges, or juries
in the long term, as all the evidence of criminal behaviour or implied
criminal behaviour in the cases which employ entrapment procedures
will be present and verifiable on the citizen's unique NIR record. No
plea of innocence would therefore be entertained and would anyway be
construed as further evidence of proscribed behaviour.

By these means we are certain that the ID card will cause the British
nation to comply with all rules as laid down by parliament or
ministers. We will save the nation huge amounts of money, and the
country will become a happier, better place as a result. People from
abroad will want to visit Britain again, as we make it the place of
choice for all tourism, which we intend to make into Britain's major
export and revenue earner over the coming decades.

MM
.

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