This period of British specialness may be ending, as the sea ceases to guard us as well as it once did. But we should not help it to end, by foolishly surrendering the freedoms we have.
Even in the most welcoming of continental countries, the state is above the people’s heads and the individual is beneath the feet of then power elite. Almost all these countries have some form of identity card or identity register, and it is up to you to show that you are going about your lawful business.
My Swiss-German mother-in-law, brought up in one of the Continent’s most liberal and democratic nations, was amazed all her life by the casual attitude British people had to their passports.
Like any European, she knew that the loss of such documents, or the inability to produce them, could plunge any individual into a nightmare of powerlessness, lawlessness, detention, interrogation and perhaps quite a bit worse. I have come to adopt her rather more severe view of the subject. And with that comes a strong desire never to see such a regime installed in Britain.
It would turn upside down the proper relationship between the state and the individual. Except during the 1939-45 war, when identity cards proved entirely useless and deeply unpopular, the British state has had to justify itself to us.
But if we are forced to carry slave badges ‘identifying’ ourselves, we would be required to justify ourselves to the government. It would give every jumped-up official behind a desk a new way of harassing and belittling us, as happened during World War II.
And heaven help you if you lost yours, even though the place would soon be awash with very convincing forgeries. Indeed, you’d probably find your card had been cloned by criminals, condemning you to weeks of explaining that you hadn’t been where you weren’t.
Oh, and it won’t solve the migrant crisis, France has identity cards, and also has an estimated 900,000 undocumented migrants living in its cities. So much for the wonders of digital ID....<<<Read More>>>...
