How the UK Citizens Burnt their Identity Cards
For those unable to believe how anyone could possibly not welcome Identity cards with open arms, here’s a story for you. After the war, fed up with the constant intrusions of privacy and government tracking, the British Housewives League burnt their compulsory ID cards in frying pans and dry cleaners.
In 1950 in London, when a common man refused to present his ID card to the police, he was taken to court. Lord Goddard who was the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales said that compulsory ID cards must be scrapped since they “tend to make people resentful of the acts of the police.”
Image Credit: http://www.no2id.net
Compulsory Identity Cars will be used to harass people
And now a final tidbit. These ID cards were introduced during the Second World War in order to enforce wartime regulations. However, intoxicated by the power that such Identity Cards gave it, the government did not revoke the ID cards. Police still had the power to detain anyone on the street and ask them for their card. Not surprising given that we saw earlier that we must not give the government too much power.
More proof that world over, compulsory Identity Cards have resulted in repression and police abuse. We must never forget history while making policies since such mistakes are expensive and ones that we can ill afford.
Similar Posts:
- Getting your fingerprints by hook or crook for the UID – October 16, 2009
- Trying to make the UID palatable to the common man – November 6, 2009
- Worldwide attention on National ID cards in India – June 29, 2009
- Why we shouldn’t give the Government too much Power – Savita Bhabi is Proof – July 15, 2009
- Universal ID cards. A threat to privacy – December 11, 2006
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