Robert Brown attacks Labour Government ID Plan as "ineffective, expensive and unnecessary"

12.00.00am GMT Mon 24th Nov 2008

Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown has attacked the Labour Government's proposals to introduce national identity cards as "being ineffective, expensive and unnecessary." The scheme is estimated to cost anything from £5 billion to £18 billion in total.

Mr. Brown, who is the Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesman on Justice and Civil Liberties, was speaking during a debate on the subject in the Scottish Parliament. And he asked what the real purpose of the ID cards was, pointing out that the UK Information Commissioner himself had said that the purpose of the ID cards scheme was unclear.

The debate took place as the first roll out of ID cards - to students from outside the European Union and marriage visa holders - is starting from Tuesday.

Robert Brown said:

"The Labour Government has experienced disaster after disaster in all its big projects: the failure of the Child Support Agency and the various big information technology projects, and the huge losses of database information in many areas of government.

Since 1945, we have dealt with the cold war, communist spies, Irish Republican Army terrorists and the protection of nuclear submarines, all without recourse to ID cards. The people who blew up the twin towers in New York had valid identity card documents, as did the Madrid bombers in 2004. In neither case did the use of ID cards prevent the atrocity.

ID cards are a gross intrusion on an individual's personal freedom. They will not help one bit in the fight against terrorism, identity theft, benefit fraud or illegal immigration. Our Government has more information about the individual citizen than any Government in the known civilised world.

The Labour Government simply cannot be trusted when it comes to handling sensitive data. In the past twelve months alone we have seen no less than ten major disasters with data held by UK governments and agencies. They include data held by the Ministry of Defence, child benefit records, data from the Scottish Ambulance Service, data on NHS workers, and data on prisoners in England and Wales.

The ID card scheme is an expensive white elephant, which was invented by a paranoid Government, has no mandate from public opinion and has serious implications for the civil liberties of ordinary citizens."

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To read the debate in Parliament please click on the link below.