In April I wrote to all 10 candidates in the local elections for William Morris ward of Waltham Forest Council to ask about their attitudes to the government's ID cards legislation. These were the Lib Dem replies.
1. Bob Wheatley
Bob Wheatley rang me to assure me that his views were in line with Lib Dem national policy on ID cards. He said he was comletely opposed and may be willing to move a Council motion against them, depending on the size of the Lib Dem group after the election.
2. Simon Jones
I am opposed to the compulsory issue of ID Cards, and would vote for this motion if presented to Waltham Forest Borough Council.
The national Liberal Democrat policy is to oppose the introduction of ID Cards, and our main arguments for this stance are laid out at this web page:
Liberal Democrats : Id Cards
Personally, I find several parts of the Identity Cards Bill make me raise my eyebrows. For example:
(4)
For the purposes of this Act something is necessary in the public interest if, and
only if, it is—
in the interests of national security
“national security”, to me, is one of those phrases (like “health and safety issue”) which make me uneasy: not because they are redundant concepts in themselves but because they are so often hijacked by mindless authoritarians. The ejection of 82-year-old Walter Wolfgang from the last Labour Party Conference was an issue of “national security”, apparently, which shows how inappropriately such seemingly benign powers can be applied.
(8) (3) d
d An ID Card issued to an individual … remains the property of the person issuing it
- this might be a more trivial point, but I don’t see why an individual should be asked to pay for something that remains government property.
Other, less specific, reasons for my opposition to these cards include:
- my distaste for the back-door technique to introduce them as compulsory documents;
- the use of paranoia about terrorism to give them a sheen of necessity (all the 7/7 bombers were registered, average citizens right up to the moment they detonated their devices, and would have been eligible to carry quite legitimate ID Cards); and
- the obvious incompatibility between the dream of a registered population and the reality of the Home Office’s failure to provide remotely accurate figures on immigration.
I hope this is helpful to you. And thank you for sending me the details of Cambridge’s resolution – exactly what I would expect from good Liberal Democrats!
Please email or ring me if you wish to discuss anything further.
I have not yet received a reply from the 3rd Liberal Democrat candidate, Mohammad Saeed Diwan, but the Liberal Democrats opposition to ID cards is very clear.
UPDATE Saeed Diwan has now replied to me as follows:
Firstly I would like to apologise for the delay in replaying to your letter dated the 9th April 2006, I am sure you can appreciate that election time is very demanding for us the candidates.
In response to your question regarding the ID cards, my view on this is that the United Kingdom is fast and furiously becoming a police state. We are watched every step of the way by CCTV, tracked by our credit cards and monitored by the banks.
There are no guarantees that the ID Cards will not be forged, there are no guarantees that ID cards will save us from identity theft. Whatever, technology is used to secure the information on the ID cards there will always be someone out there who can and will counter it.
On a recent trip to Kenya I witnessed a man being beaten and then dragged off to the police station by five police men because he was not carrying an ID Card.
I do not support ID cards and will certainly not support any motion in favour of them.
Regards
Saeed Diwan
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