Tony Blair."I.D. Cards will beat fraud and Immigration
The prime minister has said that identity cards are vital for tackling fraud and immigration abuses.
Speaking at his monthly press conference in Downing Street on Monday, Tony Blair took on critics by claiming that a secure identity system would actually boost people's liberty.
Blair told reporters that the cards would bring four major benefits: security and managing migration; protecting vulnerable people; aiding criminal detection; and combating identity fraud.
He said this
would bring tangible benefits such as making it easier to open a bank account, get a mortgage or driving licence and travel around Europe.
And he also argued that critics of the cost of the project were scaremongering by not taking into account the need to introduce biometric passports anyway and the cost of not taking action.
Earlier briefings suggested that ID cards could save £1.7bn by protecting against fraud.
And insisting he had widespread public support for the plans, Blair directly dismissed critics' complaints.
"People say this a large scale IT project, the government can't deliver such projects," he noted.
But he pointed to the successful delivery of new Department for Work and Pensions payments schemes and a new passport system.
"Then there are those who say identity cards are simply trading too much of our liberty," Blair added.
"Unsurprisingly the public don't have a problem with being protected by using CCTV cameras or DNA.
"Of course there have to be safeguards and built into this are very strong safeguards."
"Then the final argument is the cost," he said.
"And here I think there is a basic fact that is often left out of the equation.
"That is that biometric passports are going to be required anyway. The reality is biometric passports we are going to have to do irrespective of the identity base."
Blair said this would account for two thirds of the cost of the £5bn project.
"I think this is an argument about modernity," he concluded.
"In the end we have a modern world that we are living that has new and different types of crime.
"In the end if we don't use new technology, we will not be fighting crime effectively."
Earlier he wrote in the Telegraph newspaper that all non-EU immigrants will have to show an identity card in order to access jobs, public services or benefits.
"This will enable us, for the first time, to check accurately those coming into the country, their eligibility to work, for free hospital treatment or to claim benefits," he writes.
Blair said the change will come into effect with the start of the ID card scheme in 2008.
And he argued that opponents, including civil liberties campaigners and the Conservatives, are out of step with public opinion on the use of technology.
"It was very clear from last week's arguments about surveillance and the DNA database that the public, when anyone bothers to ask them, are overwhelmingly behind CCTV being used to catch or deter hooligans or DNA being used to track down those who have committed horrific crimes," he said.
"That's what surveys suggest, too, about their position on ID cards."
Tricia
I wonder why we just don't believe anything he says on any subject. I also wonder where he gets his numbers from regarding all the people who are supposed to support this. Someone once said there are three sorts of lies - lies, damn lies and statistics.
Leaving aside the question of privacy etc., the government's record of installing computer systems doesn't exactly instil confidence. Never mind, if they do happen it will give a few weeks employment to criminal gangs while they figure out how to forge them.
Ken R
Once again, it will be the ordinary man and woman in the street who are the only ones to carry their ID cards. Criminals and Illegals will carry on much the same as they do now, operating completely outside the law !
As another great person once said ( I have a terrible memory for names !)...
" Once you outlaw guns, only outlaws will carry guns"
This is precisely what has happened since the government banned handguns in the UK, more people than ever are getting shot in our lawless, wild west style society, but how many are shot by law abiding citizens ?
For ID cards,, read the same gun quotation only substitute ID cards for guns ....
"Once you make carrying ID cards law, only law abiding citizens will carry ID cards"
marieann
I carry my driving license for ID purposes if ID cards were voluntary instead of compulsory I probably would think they were a good idea. It's because my freedom of choice will once again be usurped that I object to them.
Ken R
Yeah right, so what old Tone is saying is that coutries like France and Spain etc., which have had compulsory ID cards for decades, have no fraud or immigration problems !
Yeah, and the band played "Believe it,if you like !"
Next time anybody has chance to have a private word with El Tone, ask him what colour the sky is on his planet, it sure as h*ll ain't blue like ours here on earth !
dorramae
Talking about ID cards. As we know students get reduced fairs on public trandsport. and the passes have a photo of the student on them.
Well in my local paper last week a bus driver was repremanded because:-
A student got on the bus , between Manchester and Oldham ,wearing the full veil, showed her pass to the driver, but he refuded to let her on the bus,because obviously he could not reconise her because she was all covered up and would not show her face.
The bus driver in his defense said : the policy is not to let anyone on who cannot produce a pass and be identified,otherwise they must pay full fare. which this particular person was not prepared to do.
And there is no specific policy or training advice by which to deal with a situation like this.
Sandie Seward
That bus driver was only doing his job properly, and he should not have been reprimanded for doing so. After all, just how was he supposed to know if the person inside the niqab was the correct person or not? It could have been the students Grandmother or boyfriend for all he knew.
I also wonder where he gets his numbers from regarding all the people who are supposed to support this. Someone once said there are three sorts of lies - lies, damn lies and statistics.
Yeah right, so what old Tone is saying is that coutries like France and Spain etc., which have had compulsory ID cards for decades, have no fraud or immigration problems !
