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It was set up to point a finger at the erosion of personal freedom in the UK.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2003
ID card pilot scheme
Brian Micklethwait (London)
(1)   Identity cards

Today's Guardian reports:

The home secretary, David Blunkett, is to stage a pilot scheme this autumn to test the introduction of a national identity card despite the lack of strong cabinet backing for the idea.

The Home Office confirmed last night that a six-month trial, testing the use of new generation fingerprint and eye-scanning technology, would be completed by April to "assess customer perceptions and reactions" and estimate costs. It is believed that the trial will be carried out in an as yet unnamed small market town with a population of about 10,000.

Note, as did Guardian home affairs editor Alan Travis, the creepy use of the word "customer".

UPDATE: Paul Staines comments at Samizdata.


Comments

By denying that this is a trial for compulsory National Identity Cards Big Blunkett proves once again that he can't be trusted with the truth. How then can we trust him with our privacy and freedom?

It's essential for the future of British civil liberties that this trial be a high-profile flop.

As soon as the target area for the trial is made known we need a massive campaign to persuade those affected to refuse to co-operate and undermine the experiment using any possible legal methods.

Posted by: Trevor Mendham on August 27, 2003 06:54 PM

The use of the word "customer" is indeed creepy, and worse. It is a word used to coverup the real realtionship of citizen to state: supplicant.

I wrote about similar subversive use of language here.

Posted by: David Sucher on August 28, 2003 06:22 AM
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