White Rose is a protest blog collective focusing on civil liberties in the UK.
It was set up to point a finger at the erosion of personal freedom in the UK.
Government's active measures introduce new means of control such as identity cards and surveillance cameras, the passive measures such as weakening of double jeopardy and presumption of innocence.


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White Rose contributors are those bloggers and non-bloggers who oppose restrictions on personal liberties.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2003
It's a global thing
David Carr (London)
(0)   Biometrics • Identity cards

While it is pointless to even pretend that they are not enjoying every single second of this, we should bear in mind that Messrs.Blunkett & Co at the Home Office did not dream up this ID card malarkey all by their iddle-widdle selves. Let us not forget who is really giving the orders:

EU citizens will have their fingerprints stamped on their passports or undergo an iris scan as from next year, under proposals to be drawn up by the European Commission.

By putting two and two together (generally a rewarding activity) we can see why HMG is so grimly determined to see us all electronically tattooed. They have no choice in the matter. Mind you, the EUnuchs might argue that neither do they:

These measures partly stem due to a US law enacted in 2002, which will start demanding visas from EU citizens from 26 October 2004 if they do not have biometric information (fingerprints, iris scans or DNA) on their passports.

Only 'partly', though and it is an argument I would be reluctant to buy. Given the top-down nature of continental societies, I find it very hard to believe that the EU would not have been busily constructing some grand cattle-branding scheme without any prompting from Washington. If, as we are constantly being assured, the Euros were truly determined to establish themselves as 'the alternative superpower to America', they would, presumably, tell Uncle Sam to get stuffed.

Most instructive though, if rather disheartening, to actually watch the foundations of a global security state being hammered into place. The technology exists, you see.


Comments

This article in New Scientist helps point out that biometrics is not the ID "holy grail" that some politicians think it is.

Politicians' trouble is that they must be seen to be doing something now by their constituents who have been trained to expect quick, cheap and easy solutions to all their problems, real or imaginary (Gee, wonder who led them to expect that?...) Our trouble is that unless we can make the constituents realise that at best you get two out of three of those criteria, all we all get is one botch job after another.

Posted by: Adrian Ramsey on June 24, 2003 11:30 AM

I was under the impression that EU cattle-branding had been proceeding for some time--a decade at least--what with EU passports adopting a common format, EU driving licenses ditto (with some obvious resemblences in the pattern of the information presented on the ID page).

Posted by: Guy Herbert on June 24, 2003 02:37 PM
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