The UK Government has opened a consultation “to support” digital identification and the sharing of personal data. They are not consulting whether the public agrees with their sinister plan. Neither does the Government’s “consultation” encourage public debate on the matter. They are surveying the public in such a way as to garner support.
The list of government departments that would share your data under this proposed plan is extensive and, be warned, not exhaustive – the organisations that will have access to your data, and ultimately control over your life, will grow. Alarmingly your data will also be shared with unknown private organisations which provide services to a public authority.
The consultation is open until 1 March 2023. Don’t buy into their rigged survey, but instead email the Government’s Data Sharing Legislation Team at dea-data-sharing@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk and say “NO.”
History of Britain’s Fight Against IDs
On 21 February 1952, Winston Churchill’s government scrapped ID cards. Why? In his words, to “set the people free.”
In 1950, Harry Willcock, a 54-year-old London dry cleaner, was stopped by a policeman who demanded to see his ID. He refused, telling him simply, “I am against this sort of thing.”
Mr Willcock was prosecuted and the case reached the High Court in 1951. In the judgment, Lord Chief Justice Goddard said the 1939 Act was “never passed for the purposes for which it is now apparently being used” and that using the law in this way “tends to turn law-abiding subjects into lawbreakers (…) such action tends to make the people resentful of the acts of the police.”
These words have an eerie relevance to us today. Every word could be applied to the use of the Public Health Act 1984, under which anything from visiting our families to political leafleting is currently deemed a criminal act. History teaches us that emergency measures tend to extend in duration and purpose, often to the disadvantage of citizens.
The UK rejected ID cards again after, in the wake of 9/11, then Prime Minister Tony Blair told us we couldn’t possibly fight terrorism without them.
Government proposals for ID cards have been periodically revived. During the covid era, the government has tried to re-introduce IDs in various forms, for example, vaccine passports and track and trace apps. The Government has also been quietly developing a “digital identity framework” so that, for example, we can use facial recognition apps connected to government-approved identity systems. There is also the “Electoral Integrity Bill” to require voter ID. It is only a matter of time before all these ID demands converge into a national ID system – that makes Mr Willcock’s fight against his paper ID card look quaint.
Read More: UK GOV. is trying to railroad the Public into a Digital ID System