A load of old bull

So, the new ID card has been announced and - shock horror! - it's just like any other EU ID card. As I have written before:

. Biographical data
The ID-card shall be machine-readable in compliance with Part 3 Volume 1 of ICAO Document 93031 ("Size 1 and Size 2 Machine Readable Official Travel Documents") and the way they are issued shall comply with the specifications for machine-readable cards set out therein.

The portrait of the holder shall not be affixed but integrated into the material of the front side of the card by the issuing techniques referred to in Section 5....

The EU is not actually forcing the UK to adopt ID cards, because this Labour government signed up to the measures at EU level. However, signing up does make them committed to their introduction...

It makes it very difficult for political parties who are opposed to ID cards, but want to remain in the European Union, to scrap the proposals if by the next election, the harmonisation process is very advanced.

[from Council Document 15th november 2006 15356/06 JAI 598]



There aren't any British symbols like, ooh, the union flag. Instead there's a bull and five stars representing Zeus banging Europa and leaving her a single mother of three. Which is, perhaps, appropriate.

But of course our beloved Home Secretary doesn't think there is any issue here at all (well, there isn't for her because she wants the UK to become a region of the EU)even over the question of maths...

Biometric data, including copies of all of the person's fingerprints, will be stored on a special security chip.

Miss Smith admitted that it would be impossible to include fingerprints of some people on the card. But she denied that taking 10 prints from the elderly or those with missing fingers would be a problem.

You know what, honey? It will be a problem taking 10 prints from someone who doesn't have 10 prints. That's just fact.

Now, how many people will actually make a fuss about it, and how many people geniunely think that anything will be done by those appalling politicians in Westminster?

That's why, on 5th November, I am going for a walk. Some nice exercise to help me remove any stress I might have.

"If you see what I see, if you feel as I feel and if you would seek as I seek then I ask you to stand beside me and together we shall give them a 5th of November that shall never, ever be forgot."