Home Secretary Jacqui Smith On Identity Cards For The Homeless
HOW to you log everyone in cardboard city?
The new Home Secretary passes the buck
Funnily enough, you might be surprised to hear that I don’t support Identity Cards. Besides my lack of faith in the Government actually being able to manage the technology, there is something disturbingly worrying about having my entire life recorded on a chip and managed by the Government.
We get told it’s about protecting my identity, but who protects my identity from some incompetent Database administrator that types the wrong thing in a SQL window? You might think I’m paranoid, but believe me it happens. “Datafix” is not an uncommon word in the private sector so I doubt it’s a rarity in the public sector – assuming they ever actually make a system go live of course.
Of course there are also practical problems to ID cards. For a start what do you do about the homeless? How exactly do you go about registering Cardboard City? Interestingly, last week, Nick Clegg – who may be leader of the Lib Dems soon if the by-election tomorrow goes badly for his party – asked this exact question to the new Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.
Irrespective of what might have happened between then and now (she may have been fired or worse for all I know given I am not in the country) her answer was intriguing. She said:
“Precise arrangements have yet to be made for identity card applications, including how it will be possible for homeless people to register for a national identity card. However, we intend to draw on the experience of other government departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions and the national health service that already provide services to homeless people.”
Alternatively this could be read as “Oooooo that’s a good question. I never thought of that…. errr….. don’t fret about it, we’ll sort it out honest, I speak to more clever people about it like those nice people at the Job Centre.”
Yours reading Campbell’s Diaries,
Posted: 18th, July 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
