The lies, the untruths, and the Ministry of Funk on the identity register. Meg Hillier Lab, Hackney South and Shoreditch told Monday's Indytab:
The British Social Attitudes Survey revealed that 71 per cent of the population think that ID cards would be a price worth paying to help tackle threats such as terrorism.
Yet the identity register will not do anything to tackle terrorism; even a previous minister in charge of the useless project, Mr. Tony McNulty implied that the 2005 London bombings would not have been prevented by his proposed register.
Second, no one is saying they will be the answer to everything.
This is the impression we've got from previous ministers at the Interior and Funk departments, particularly the odious right-winger Mr. Plunkett and the Safety Elephino Mr. Clarke: entry on the register will prove entitlement to use public services. It will prove entitlement to work. It will ensure that winters are mild, and summers are temperate. Okay, no-one has yet made that last claim, but they're clearly thinking it.
The Spanish police have themselves said that identifying the terrorists involved in the Madrid bombings was made easier by their national identity scheme.
We don't recall the British security services having a tremendous amount of difficulty establishing all the information about the perpetrators of their bombing. Indeed, pointing an accusing finger within five days of the explosions is a remarkable tribute to the speed with which the police worked.
Our own security services have said that ID cards will help in the fight against terrorism.
These would be the same security services that said Iraq had a viable nuclear programme? Besides, security services are the servants of the government. We appoint a government to provide checks and balances against the wishlist of MI5 and MI6, not to kow-tow to it.
Identity fraud is a real and growing threat, and we know that it enables other crime, including terrorism.
And negligent identitification is aided by a single point of failure, such as over-reliance on the SIN. Even Microsoft says that the identity register will make fraud worse, not better. Still, when there's no evidence, we can rely on the government to trumpet its own ability to keep data secure.
By linking fingerprints to a secure database with strict rules outlining its use
Here's the crux of the matter. The child benefit fiasco has proven that the government is unable to follow its own rules. Not only is it congenitally incapable of delivering a computer project to time and to budget, it is clearly incapable of designing and properly implementing a system that prevents unauthorised access. There may be rules, but past experience tells us that no one will follow them.
That is why the identity register is now dead in the water. That is why Meg Hillier needs to resign, now, before she says something that will really jeopardise her career.
