AC Grayling: Brown's bona fides
The real test of whether the prime minister is a sincere defender of civil liberties remains ID cards
AC Grayling
Monday October 29, 2007
The Guardian
...The real test of Brown's bona fides as a champion of liberty remains
ID cards. The chief of many fallacies underlying arguments in favour of
biometric cards seems to have been bought by Brown: that if we have a
technology, we must use it. He must be urged to see that the potential
misuses of ID technology and the creation "identity recognition" -
which will summon the most creative energies of a huge new criminal
industry - jointly entail that it is the worst kind of folly to create
an instrument that profoundly undermines civil liberties and invites
nightmares of misuse, misapplication and mistake in future. If Brown
would really convince us of his civil liberty credentials, he should
start by abandoning the ID card scheme.
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