Mr Burnham said the radio technology was being introduced to meet international regulations enabling identity documents to be read by scanners at airports. It was “nonsense” to suggest the frequencies could be used to monitor people’s movements.

“This kind of scaremongering is designed to whip up fears about the ID cards scheme. I hope people will see it for what it is.“

…

George Monbiot doing his best Irdial impersonation. But he holds himself back too much. Although this bit is pretty good…

‘So the police won’t even have to be there. Someone sitting in a control room could fly a tiny drone (some of them are just a few inches across) equipped with a receiver over the heads of a crowd and, with the help of our new identity cards, determine who’s there.‘

…

The ID card debate seems to be boring the populus into submission. It, as many other issues, has been transformed into a neo-liberal dinner party discussion and taken as far as possible out of the context of most citizens futures. Nobody I speak to really cares, nobody shows any passion one way or the other. The ‘nothing to hide: nothing to fear’ response prevails. Tis the way of the modern world.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 21st, 2006 at 10:14 am and is filed under Politricks.