ID cards - is Big Brother watching you?

ID cards are set to be introduced for foreign nationals from 2008 and for British citizens in 2009. Maddy Fry gives her opinion on their impending introduction.

All this would be at an estimated cost of at least £93 to each taxpayer. If that’s an ID card for every person, then the cost would be roughly five billion pounds. The nightmare world of 1984 does not seem far-fetched exactly because it lacks anything outrageous

Supporters of ID cards claim that they will be a useful weapon in fighting crime, including terrorism, and that if you have nothing to hide why should you be scared?
I would argue that is not the point. The point is that in a liberal democracy each individual is meant to have safeguarded, constitutional rights which allow them to keep particular details private from the government in order to prevent any abuses of power.

The philosopher Lord Acton’s words “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” have never been more relevant. Since the death of socialism, the naïve fantasy of the government as a benign, paternalistic entity devoted purely to the well being of its citizens has passed. The British government has time and again illustrated its massive capacity for corruption, incompetence and selfishness (the escaped prisoners scandal, anyone?) proof that there is no guarantee that any National Identity Register containing all of our details would not be subjected to misuse or abuse by certain self-seeking individuals.

Furthermore, the idea that ID cards can prevent crime is laughable. Like any other form of identification they would simply become another thing to forge. How could the government possibly prevent a black market for ID cards from springing up? And all this would be at an estimated cost of at least £93 to each taxpayer. If that’s an ID card for every person, then the cost would be roughly five billion pounds. Do you not think that that money could perhaps be better spent? Think how many AIDS drugs, anti-malarial bed nets, clean water or food aid those funds could provide for people in Africa.

Our government’s priorities are severely skewed; if we concentrated more on fighting poverty in Africa (a continent which is 40 per cent Muslim) and helping to make them realise that we are not their enemies, then we could stop the process of anti-Western hatred that is already being formed in madrassas (Islamic schools) across places like Somalia and Sudan. If we were to avoid making the same mistakes in Africa that were made in the Middle East, then surely that would be a more effective way of fighting terrorism than ID cards?

Recently, a BBC reporter talked about the phenomenon of the surveillance society whilst standing in front of a house that used to be occupied by George Orwell. Ironically, from where he was standing he could spot over 20 CCTV cameras. This was a chilling reminder that Orwell’s genius lay in his powers of perception. The nightmare world of 1984 does not seem far-fetched exactly because it lacks anything outrageous. Big Brother had simply crept in by the back door, infiltrating every aspect of social life through the banal medium of surveillance.

The idea that we are suddenly turning into an ‘Orwellian state’ is bandied around a lot nowadays. But it’s not new; Big Brother will always be there so long as the abuse of power remains a threat. It’s just the job of ordinary people to ensure that he stays outside the back door.